Knights of the frozen ashes (Bleach)
by sr.unknown
Summary: Sometimes it's hard to save someone, but sometimes just takes one question. The winter war is approching, and an unexpected encounter can save someone from a worthless sacrifice (it contains various pairings aside the ones mentioned read to find out. WARNING:yuri, lemon, violence)
1. Prologue

Prologue

 _Why do we fight?_

The Karakura city has become a ghost town. All the people and even animals were lying unconscious on the ground, leaving the wind as the only signal that the city was still alive.

 _That question affected us all at some point in our lives_

Two figures could be distinguished in the sky. One was belonged to a man, if it could still be called a man. It was tall, around 170cm, with white skin and six wings on his back and a hole in the middle of his chest holding a small, shining ball that emanated a feeling of power and fear. He had long brown hair and was looking at the other figure with an evil smirk.

 _Many can fight for wealth, by order, for love, or justice_

The other figure belonged to a woman, slightly shorter then the first figure. She was wearing only high heeled boots, a skirt and bra made of bones, shoulder and arm protectors, and also was holding a giant sword. She was well endowed, with teal eyes and short blonde hair with three braids. She was beautiful, well as beautiful as you can be when you are covered in blood and bruises.

 _The worst thing you can do in a battle is forget why you are in a battle to begin with…_

"Aizenn" the woman was radiating fury, and scowling so hard that tears started to form in her eyes. With a war scream, she charged at the man with a speed that surprised both of them, intending to cut the man's head whit a single attack.

"OLA AZUL!"She roared pushing her reiatsu to her very limits, expecting Aizen to raise his sword against her's, but that didn't matter, she was disposed to penetrate his defences anyway. But she would have never predicted what he did next.

That accursed man, the one that use her and her friends like pawns, the one that give her false hope and another man that betray her…didn't even move a finger.

He received the attack like she would have received a breeze, and despite the resulting explosion brought down all the closest buildings and the weaker souls that were kilometres away, he emerged like if nothing had happened.

The woman turned to the still smirking man and looked deep into his eyes, and for a moment all the anger, all the determination she manage to gather, all became fear.

"Are you done?" He asked her, and she jumped at the sudden question, but then she started to ponder it. Was she done actually? She used every last drop of reiatsu she had on that last attack and even if she could manage to pull another one it didn't even damage him! What would she do when he…?

"If you are done then I guess it's my turn" and with that he raised his left arm and slap her on the face. The impact was so powerful that it sent her flying to the outsides of the city, the only reason she didn't fly further was because Aizen appeared above her and delivered a punch to her belly. Despite the strength of the first hit she managed to block it with her weapon, but it immediately broke into pieces and she was sent flying to the ground creating an enormous crater and delivering her unconscious.

She opened her eyes and noticed that Aizen was slowly flying towards her.

 _Because if you don't abandon your values, and you keep them in your heart, even if you are defeated, you will win…_

Now the fear she felt was added impotence, she didn't want to die.

Then Aizen lifted his sword and pointed it to her, intending to end her life with a final thrust.

"It's been a pleasure Halibel-san" and with that said she closed her eyes and waited for the end, wondering 'what if I had done something different'…but the blow never came

With fear, Halibel opened her eyes and saw Aizen's sword inches away from her head and wonder why would he stop?

She lifted her gaze and got her answer: he didn't stop, someone received the blow for her. The last person she would have wanted.

… _but entering the battle purely satisfy your revenge or bloodlust, with no values, or even a cause, is a double edge weapon that will kill you even if you win the battle._

"No…" she said, with horror in her voice" why you?"

The person that saved her smiled and shaped the words to answer, those words, whatever they were, switch something inside her mind, and make her turn into uncontrollable sobbing.

 _And so a sword…_

"I must admit, it took you shorter than I thought" Aizen could have said that or anything else, and it would have the same effect on Halibel.

Because all her previous anger returned, multiplied hundreds of times. And with that, Halibel also felt power of the same magnitude

… _falls again._

"Aaa **aAA** Aa **aaAA** a **AAARGH!** " that was the last thing she remembered


	2. Chapter 1 The cross we carry

Oh hello there, I know you are wondering 'what the hell is going on here?' well i would love to tell you but i I learned something of playing final fantasy XIII is that all complicated stories make sense in the end. So if you wanna know what's happening you'll just have to keep readingXD

Anyway hope you like it

(PD: wow 7 reviews in half a month, that's 7 more than i thought i would get)

Chapter 1 

The demons we hold

"Agh...where…am I?" Kurosaki Ichigo asked himself, while trying to open his eyes. He was feeling dizzy and weak for some reason.

With one last effort he manage to open his eyes and the first thing that he noticed was that he was holding Tensa Zangetsu on his right hand, the second was that he was blooding from a deep wound in his left side.

"What? Was I fighting? Who…?"Then he looked around and started remembering, and then got the answer to his first question. He was in the soukyoku hill.

And as for the rest of the questions, they were answered when a voice speak from behind.

"It's a shame, at the end I won't be able to see whether or not you'll walk the same path as I did" the voice belong to a tall man, with white short hair and red eyes. His chest was undressed and had a tattoo that covered its left side. On his right hand there was a strange metal formation that almost looked like a skull and emanated a sword made of electricty. The man was looking at Ichigo's direction, smirking. But that smirk was far from arrogant, it was full of respect, there was even hints of, nostalgia.

But in Ichigo's case, he didn't even know what to feel.-'why is he telling me this?' was all he could think; the man that threatened with destroying all the seireitei, killing thousands of innocent people and even treat his own kind and comrades as mere disposable cards was now…regretting? No this felt different, was he…grateful? Ichigo was facing a dilemma, this man was a monster, the things he did were unforgivable, but now, the man that was talking to him seem much more human.

'Please I need to now more' and for a second it seemed that he would get his answer, but…

"Kurosaki, I…" and with that he just, turn into dust

"Wait, Kariya!" Ichigo suddenly turn around and try to reach him but when he did all he met was a little boy. Ichigo instantly noticed that he had Kariya's white hair and red eyes, but bount can't have child then…

"Kariya, is that you?" as soon as he said that the boy in front of him fell to the floor and start sobbing and trembling with fear.

"Please sir, I don't want to die" that sentence confused Ichigo to no ends 'what? Why would I hurt you? You are just a child you still haven't done anything bad' then Ichigo tried to reach him, comfort him somehow. But as he did he saw that his hand was…covered in blood.

Ichigo froze at that sight, so much that couldn't think for the first few seconds

'W-what the hell?!' then he return his sight to the boy Kariya, but he didn't expect him to see him lying on the floor covered in blood to.

The pool of blood started to slowly become bigger, and at the same time the world around him started loosing colour.

He tried to reach him, help him, but when he was about to touch him he noticed a white hand in front of his. He lifted his head and noticed that he was in front of a mirror.

But his reflection was white.

That was a sight he hoped he never would see again. He remembered that the boy Kariya was lying dead in front of him.

"Bastard what have you done?!" his reflection only grinned in response.

And then it spoke.

" **I? You mean what WE have done"**

"What are you talking about?"

" **Exactly that. You and I are one and the same! So if what worries you is a little death here and there…"** he turned his gaze to the body of Kariya **"better get used to it! Haahaha!"** Ichigo could felt his laughter echoing in his very bones, just inside his head, mocking him, insulting him. But he couldn't deny it, because deep inside he knew that he wasn't entirely wrong.

"S-shut up" Ichigo said with anger rising inside. But the laughter didn't stop.

"SHUT UP!" the anger inside of him began transforming in fear. Fear of being weak, fear of hurting his friends, fear of becoming a monster.

"Someone…please…make it stop" the fear was growing more each past second threatening with eating him alive. He wouldn't be able to hold much longer, he had to get out of there, make it stop, make it stop…

He woke up.

Ichigo found himself staring at a familiar white ceiling. He was dreaming, technically a nightmare, but that wasn't what matter to him now.

"Five nights in a row" he sighed "and how many more to be?"

Not wanting to risk falling asleep again he decided to get up and deal with it later.

He looked at the clock' 7:29'"wait for it".

.

.

.

"¡GOOD MORNING ICHI-agh!" Ichigo's father Isshin crashed trough the window but didn't manage to finish because Ichigo's fist collided with his gut.

"Yeah, yeah good morning dad" he tried to sound carefree but after all his was the best father of the world (a/n¬_¬) so he caught his tone.

"Ichigo is something wrong?" he abandon his usual… ok I'll say it idiocy out of care for his son

"Nothing just… bad night" he couldn't tell his father about what he was dreaming for obvious reasons, so he decided to spare him that.

"…" Isshin knew that that wasn't the whole truth but he didn't press the matter, knowing his son, he was sure that he wouldn't spill it out that easily. 'Maybe his friends can help him where I (sniff) fail' "well I get it but don't think that because you got up earlier you'll get a special trait, now get up or I'll have to kick you out!"

"Yes that would be so much yours, kicking your first son out of your house just like that. Wonder what would mom say?" he grinned when his dad got a heart attack and started squirming, he was just too easy.

Ichigo throw his father out of his room leaving him mumbling something like "Masaki" and "cruel son"; and got dressed for school. His uniform consisted of grey trousers and white t-shirt which he never completely buttons, and also a grey sweater but he didn't wore it today because of the high temperature.

When he was about to leave he remembered something important. It was a drag but since he got his shinigami powers he couldn't leave his house without it. He sighed and went to his closet only to find a sight that made his heart stop… due to the laughter he had to hold.

Because in that closet he found a sleeping Kon and Rin rin…hugging.

Kon was hugging Rin rin's head close to his chest and Rin rin was hugging him back, but killer part was that both of them had a dumb smile on their faces.

At the sight Ichigo ran for his cell phone and started taking fotos.

"Nee-san" Kon mumbled, that made Ichigo's laughter harder to control.

"Ichigo" Rin rin said only his name and killed all Ichigo's attempts of restraining himself. So he burst out laughing.

"¡BUHAAHAHA! KAMI THAT'S SO RICH HAHAHAHA!"

With this Kon and Rin rin start slowly waking up with the latter still not realising the position they were.

'Grrr that Ichigo, why can't he understand the concept of sleeping in peace?' she turned and saw him dying of laughter." What's so funny?"

"I don't -haha-know-ha- ask your -haha-partner" she didn't know what he meant until she saw the face of a really pale Kon that had a very terrified expression, like if he just got handed his dead sentence. Well, he probably did.

"A…a…ah KYAAAAAAAA!" she screamed and punched Kon' face in the process, who bounced repeatedly across the whole room.

"I-i-it wasn't what it looked like I SWARE!"

"Really? Because it looked like you two were c-u-d-d-l-y-i-n-g"

"Wait a moment!" Kon said when he finally stopped bouncing "you are not implying that I have a thing for that bird nose, do you?!" Rin rin's eyes narrow dangerously "you know that my first and only love is nee-san!" he said with dreamily face.

"Oh I don't know" Ichigo stated "what would your nee-san said if she saw this?" he showed him the pictures he took and then he went even more pale than before. But Rin rin's expression was totally different, like if the mere sight made her sick.

"Ichigo! Please don't show her that! I'll do anything!" Ichigo grinned evilly to the mod soul. He had just stepped with a once in life opportunity, and he was going to explode it to the fullest. But all Kon saw in his face was probably the first day of the end of his life

'It's Ichigo we are talking about it can't be that bad, right?'

"Ok I'll ask you a few favors" he said returning to his usual mood "but for now no funny business when you are in my body understood?" he pressed the last word earning a vigorously nod from the little lion" ok we'll go now" he said placing Kon on his backpack.

"Have a good day Ichigo!" Rin rin said goodbye to him

"Goodbye, oh and thanks for the laugh I needed that "he commented making her blush.

He went downstairs and found his sisters. Yuzu was preparing breakfast and Karin was sitting in at the table.

"Good morning" he greeted them.

"Good morning oni-chan!" Yuzu said with a smile "your omelette is waiting"

"I knew something smelled delicious" Ichigo said praising his sister. He turned his head to Karin who had a worried expression on her face.

"Karin, is something wrong?" her expression suddenly changed for a slightly forced smile

"N-no, of course not Ichi-nii, just thinking" she replied, a little to fast

"Really?"

" Yes! And what about you Ichi-nii? Did you…sleep well?"

Ichigo for a second considered the possibility of his sister being aware of all the bad nights he's been having but immediately discard it. He didn't want to alarm his sibling for a few nightmares.

"Sure I did, as always" Karin's face told him that she wasn't buying it but he hoped that she wouldn't press the matter.

"Ichi-nii you can tell me anything, we are family" his hopes died.

"I…" he stopped when he felt a disproportionate ear almost inhaling their words. While he was grateful for the change of subject he was also pissed of for his 'father's figure' antics.

"DAD!" Ichigo screamed at top of his lungs inside the ear making his owner shiver and then fall on his back "it wasn't enough with the 'kicking me out' thing you also had to spy on your own children! Really what kind of father are you?"

Isshin looked at him for a few seconds and then give him the proper answer.

"WHAT?! DID YOU SAY SOMETHING?!"

'Maybe I should have use fewer decibels' he said and then made a face splitting grin. He just felt like teasing today.

"Hey! Im going to school now is that ok with you?!" he said a devilish plan set in mind.

His dad looked at him not understanding what he said so he looked at his daughters asking for help with the eyes.

They smirked for a second then adopted serious expressions and nodded to him.

He caught the bait and answered to Ichigo.

"I like the way you are thinking" he said a little too loud.

"So… you are a total idiot I'm I right?"

Isshin looked once more at his daughters; they were trying to hold a laugh but nodded anyways.

"You took the words out of my mouth"

By this point Karin was slamming his hand against the table in a laughter attack and Yuzu was holding her stomach trying to prevent it from exploding while Ichigo had to hold it better because he wanted to prolong his game a little bit longer. And he was feeling generous for once.

"So correct me if I'm wrong…you are going to take Yuzu and Karin to the beach for tomorrow day right?"

This time Isshin started to get suspicious when looked at Yuzu and Karin they were gawking at Ichigo with childlike wonder. They looked at him and nodded vigorously and Karin also winked

Isshin winked back and then said

"Sure, I couldn't agree more!" after that sentence the girls started cheering and run to hug Ichigo with all their might while Ichigo itself was crying of laugh.

On the other side Isshin had the feeling that he lost something

"Ha-ha that was good one, ok I'll have to go now" Ichigo stated

"But oni-chan aren't you going to eat breakfast?" Yuzu asked. Ichigo then took a deep sip of his coffee cup and a bite of his omelette before saying "I'll eat something else on the way" he said disappearing behind the door. To tell the truth he hated having to upset his sister by rejecting his breakfast but he would prefer leaving before Karin asked anymore questions.

'Wonder what was that he dreamed he can't tell us?' she thought 'and who was that Mumei he mumbled in his sleep?'

* * *

Ichigo walked in the streets with his trademark scowl on his face as usual. Except that this time he didn't have to act so much since his nightmare was still present in his mind. He would never admit it but he was starting to get worried of them. The dream itself alone was frightening, that and the fact that he had the same dream the last five nights to say nothing his white counterpart who starred it, it was beyond the scary, it was bordering on the suspicious.

His chain of thoughts was interrupted by the sound of his stomach demanding proper feed

'Damn if I go now to school I wont be able to eat for two hours more' he thought passing in front a cafeteria 'oh what the hell there are just a few minuets right?'

He entered and then something clicked his senses.

Inside there he could feel a reiatsu signature that he never felt before. It was weak but for human standards it was right above the normal. But what mattered to him now was the structure, because it was like a hollow's…no…shinigami's? It was strange, like a hollow's reiatsu with shinigami stains.

Ichigo was so focused on the reiatsu signature that he almost missed that the owner of said reiatsu was sitting on a nearby table, being surrounded by a sight he knew to well

A bunch of high school thugs.

He decided to act before things got out of the hands. When he got close enough he saw the owner of that unique reiatsu.

It was a woman, she was wearing black high collared sweater and white jeans. She was almost as tall as him, had short blond hair with three braids, full lips and turquoise eyes not to mention well endowed. To put it short...

'She is beautiful' the woman's eyes lifted and met his for a full second.

That second was enough for them to see in each other's eyes the life they were about to live.

Whether they liked it or not.


	3. Chapter 2 Trip to the human world

So now i will start telling the story of how Tia ended in that cafeteria, but as for the story of why is she in the human world, well you'll just have to keep reading (i'm so evil i knowXD).

* * *

Chapter 2

Trip to the human world

 _Back in time: yesterday night_

It was 2 am on the city of Karakura; most of the people were already sleeping or returning to their homes after a long working day swearing to kill their bosses in the morning. So there was almost no souls on the streets alive or not.

So no there was no one to notice the black portal that opened in the sky.

Out of it emerged a figure dressed in with gear and carrying what seemed like a corpse's bag. Before the author managed to get proper description the figure jumped out of the portal landing on a dark alley and started unzipping the bag.

The author used the chance to take a proper look at the figure. The figure belonged to Tia Halibel the tres espada. She had pretty big assets that were mostly hidden by a white jacket with long sleeves that ended in black finger gloves and high collar that covered the lower part of her face. The rest of her outfit consisted on a white hakama that showed her thighs tied with a black sash. Also she…

'I don't have much time' she cut the author taking the content of the bag in her arms.

It was a gigai.

Halibel looked at the body oddly at first and then did as she was told; she started to vibrate her reishi making it loose so it could merge with the gigai.

She make it at her first try, but at the beginning it felt a little funny, so she had to do some stretching to get used to it. And after a particular one where she touched the floor with her hands, giving a nice view of her butt was when she realized, that she wasn't alone.

First she heard a loud whistle behind her with the unmistakable smell of alcohol and immediately straightened, with a disappointed groan as response.

"No sweetie go on don't mind us" one of the two men that were ogling her said and then both laughed. She sighed and turned her head to face them, and on the way she saw a bar neon sign next to a door on the wall.

'I think I should have seen that' she cursed herself for not realizing where she landed, and in the meantime the 'gentlemen' could take a better look at her face.

"What do you say, I hold her first and then you, deal?" he whispered thinking that the woman wouldn't listen.

As they came closer the arrancar remembered something that Tousen told her when she got permission for this mission.

 _Flashback: two hours ago_

"Just again what do I have to wear this?" she asked feeling uncomfortable having to wear a gigai.

Kaname Tousen stood in front of her; they were standing just outside the front gate of Las Noches, the moon of the eternal night shining in all its glory.

"I know it may not be your liking, but the barrier doesn't work on spiritual beings, you can always opt for not using it but shinigami would notice you instantly" the blind man answered.

"No, I don't want sacrifice anyone without need" she stated with resignation "how much did you say the barrier will hold?" she asked again looking at a silver bracelet.

"It is still a prototype, but I'm sure it won't be less than an hour"

"It will have to do" Halibel answered placing the bracelet in a pocket next to the gigai

"Are you sure you want to do this?" he said "to risk yourself for this… is he really worth it?" Tousen asked her with surprising concern.

"You just tell me if my request was fulfilled" the man sighed.

"As Aizen-sama promised no one in Las Noches even your fraccion will find out about him"

"I appreciate it" she bowed "Now, if that's all, I'll go now" Tia opened a garganta and jumped on it.

"Don't underestimate that man" Tousen warned her "despite his looks he's anything but a fool, and remember the gigai will suppress most of your reiatsu so you'll be considerably weaker"

Halibel nodded and proceeded to run through the portal, not before listening to a last sentence from Tousen.

"Beware… Tia"

'I will…Tousen-san'

 _Flashback ends_

'Why is he so open with me? He is a shinigami and I am just another of his soldiers'

Tia was so deep in thought that she almost missed that the drunken guys had already surrounded her.

"Now sweetie let's see what you got" one of them said lecherously.

'Oh yeah, them' she sighed 'should I test this barrier, or the limitations or this body?'

One of them started to lower her pants while the other slipped his hand under her sweater.

'Limitations it is' she head butted the man in front of her easily breaking his nose. The other shocked by her reaction didn't see when Tia's elbow collided with his mouth.

'I was aiming to his eye' she moved a hand to her forehead 'the hit disorientated me a bit' Tia analyzed her new body unpleased while the two thugs keep squirming and throwing curses. She was about to take her bag and leave when the thug with broken nose got up and searched something on his coat.

"You…bitch" he pulled out a dagger of his pocket but Tia didn't seem scared at all, but then the second thug pulled a funny silver object with L shape and pointed her with. She remembered it from the research she made of the human world before leaving.

"Is that a gun?" she asked but the thugs only grinned in response.

The arrancar at first wasn't scared but then remembered she was in a gigai, and while her spirit form would survive if this was destroyed she needed it for her mission.

Now Tia was running out of options; as she discovered previously this body was extremely weak and slow to face that weapon, and judging by the look on their eyes they would kill her if she made any sudden moves.

The men were getting closer to her and she had to think in a plan fast. While she wasn't fast enough her reflexes were worlds apart from theirs, it was risky but she'll just wait till they get close enough and then…

"Ekhm am I interrupting something?"

All the heads turned to the door of the bar from which emerged the voice. The owner of said voice was a girl of no more than 16 years with fuchsia hair tied in two ponytails that reached her waist and eyes of the same color. She was wearing a black dress that was; in Tia's opinion; too short for a girl of her age, a black ribbon over a white cloth that covered her breasts, white hat between her ponytails, long black boots that reached right above her knees, white bracers and was carrying a matching white purse.

He was looking at them with a scowl on her eyes but the aura she emanated give them all the same thought:

'She looks like a human sized doll'

"Well? Nobody will tell me what's going on here?" she asked them, Tia was starting to get worried about the mental health of her 'savior' what made her think someone like she could deal with them? "Because it looks like two drunks that think they can treat a lady like that in the sanctity of MY house"

Tia raised an eyebrow at this; the incarnated girlish lived in a bar?

Meanwhile the men had the chance to analyze the girl and make another agreement.

"Hey, I'll take the pink head you can have the tanned one, deal?" said the man with broken nose

"Deal" with this said they started to walk to Tia and the new girl. Since the thugs separated she had now the advantage; she could snatch the man's gun in the right moment, knock him out and then help…

¡SMASH!

Tia saw a huge object passing her at great speed towards the street. She turned around to see what it was. And when she saw it her face went blank

Because she saw the thug with broken nose unconscious being crushed by… probably the biggest and cutest plush panda she had ever seen.

'What in the world is that?' she turned her gaze to the other girl and saw her pointing some kind of winged toy fish to the place where the panda was lying. After a better analysis she found out that it was some kind of gun. 'Did she just shot that to him?' the remaining man looked the situation with his bloody mouth agape. Then, trembling, he pointed his gun to the pink haired girl.

"¡W-what the hell did you, you freak!" that seemed to affect the girl because her expression went grim with shadows covering her eyes.

"¿Freak, me?" she snorted "Have you looked yourself in the mirror lately? You are not exactly the prettiest man in the world" she took a plush cat from her purse "not like Cuddly-kun" she pointed his fist at him vertically with the thumb below her index finger.

The man was looking at her with fear and confusion overtaking him while Tia was looking with curiosity.

"¿Didn't you hear me?" the man ignored her words "I asked you what did you…" before he managed to say 'freak' the girl lifted her thumb of under her forefinger shooting a small heart in the air. The heart flied towards the man and stuck in his chest.

At first Tia and the man wondered what was that for but then the man transformed into blue light and began to be sucked into the plush cat.

Tia looked at the scene flabbergasted, but even more when the cat started to blink and then spoke.

"W-w-what the hell!?" he screamed "What did you to me damn…" he was pushed back into the purse

"Yeah, yeah just get in there" seeing no more danger she got close the Tia with a serious expression "are you ok?" she asked.

"…" Tia couldn't speak for the first seconds; she just saw the most bizarre thing in her life.

"Hello?" the girl waved her hand over her face "are you still there? Don't tell me I traumatized you" she said with a tired expression waking Tia out of her daze.

"No I'm fine, and thanks for… whatever was that"

"Good, now listen" her expression turned deadly serious "I'll go straight to the point: you can't tell anyone about what you saw here I'm I clear?"

'She thinks she can threaten me?' she thought surprised for her manners 'well she did help me out I think I owe her that at least'

"Rest assure no one will hear what happened here of me" the girl looked at her with judging eyes making Tia feel slightly offended.

"You don't seem the type of a liar so I'll believe you" she said and then adopted a smug smile that was supposed to be warm "before asking someone's name you should tell her yours so, hi my name is Riruka Dokugamine it's a pleasure"

"Thank you" Tia said but she didn't expected a vein to start pulsating on her forehead

"Just what was that?" she asked easily pissed "that is your excuse of manners? First I save you of being raped and potentially murdered then I try to be gentle and tell you my name before I ask yours and all you can say is 'thank you'?"

"I'm sorry but I don't know what else I should say?" the arrancar honestly didn't understand the sudden outburst of this Riruka girl.

"Oh I don't know, maybe your name or what you were doing alone in the middle of the night at this hour. You know little things like that"

'Who would thought a girl dressed like that could bite, or be that perceptive' Tia thought and started to get worried; she couldn't tell her the truth for obvious reasons but if she didn't tell her something believable now she would have to kill her, and that wasn't and option either for several reasons. But it was very likely she wouldn't believe whatever she tells her, so she had in her opinion one option left.

"You are right, I owe you an explanation for your kindness and I'll give it to you, but know I just can't tell you the whole truth dispite i want to. Please understand and forgive me"

Riruka raised an eyebrow in suspicion but the pleading look in the woman's eyes made her feel a little the tight situation she was in. So in the end she just sighed in understanding and then spoke.

"Fine if you can't tell I think I get it, but at least tell me why were you doing here?" Tia could feel her heart returning to a regular beat.

"Well, for where I actually didn't mean to end into the backdoor of your bar, it was an accident" Riruka was looking at her like 'how could you end here by here by accident?' but she didn't interrupt "and as for why I am just here for a couple of days, my friend is ill need to… obtain some special medicine for him" Riruka give her a smug grin.

"And by friend you mean friend or _friend_ " she said that expecting her to blush not make the face the author may have made when he searched 'trypophobia' on Google. 'He cant be that ugly can he?'

"I don't think that's important here" Tia said with deadly expression making the girl gulp.

"O-ok then, by obtain I assume you mean steal?" she asked carefully trying not to get that creepy tone again.

The arrancar sighed "that wasn't hard to guess was it?" she looked at the floor with shame in her eyes. Luckily Riruka was good reading emotions so she tried to sooth her.

"Hey cheer up it doesn't matter to me if that's what you're thinking; I know humans can be very adamant with their stuff" she said with hints of anger. Tia looked at her in surprise, she guessed she wasn't an ordinary human already but she didn't expect her to dislike them to the point she wouldn't mind if someone tried to comit a crime in their world.

'What could have happened for her to be in such terms with her kind?' she wondered with a bit of pity "thank you again for understanding".

"Hey no problem, so you said you'll be here for a few days right?" she nodded "so do you have somewhere to sleep?" Tia broke eye contact.

"It's ok I can sleep outside for one or two nights".

"WHAT?! Like hell im allowing someone as pretty as you to live on the streets! Come you can stay with me I'm sure that jiji won't mind" she grabbed a flabbergasted Tia by the wrist and started pulling her way into the bar.

'Pretty?' was the only thought she had about it. She wanted to say something but she felt nothing could change her mind. Also she felt warmth in her chest for the girl's generosity, warmth she could only feel with her fraccion these days .And recently with one more person.

'Just hold on a bit longer, I will return hope to your life…Koa'


	4. Chapter 3 The value of a promise

Chapter 3

The value of a promise

Tia followed a bit begrudgingly to Riruka inside the door to a dimly lit hall. She was grateful with the girl yes, but she would rather avoid the place where those thugs came from.

Riruka seemed to notice her body tense cause she suddenly stopped halfway down the corridor and gave Tia a curious look.

"What's the problem?"

"It's just… I don't think I like the idea of staying in place frequented by that kind of people" she asked hoping she wouldn't offend her

"Oh, them? They are just some boors that thought that they could treat our tender like if she was…ekhm…a harlot just because she works in a bar, but don't worry jiji doesn't allow that kind of behavior so we immediately threw them away. Now that I think about it we never had this kind of problem until today" she said thoughtfully "It seems you just had very bad luck"

With this Riruka managed to calm her down a little so they walked the rest of the hall and crossed a door leading to the main room. And Tia couldn't avoid feeling impressed at the sight.

'This isn't a bar, this is a small nightclub' she thought and indeed the place was not as big as the typical club but it was more than just a bar.

It was a big room with no more than a hundred square meters, it had big dance floor on the center, tables on the lateral walls and on the back one leaving a small gap for the main door and on the front wall there was the bar itself; a table separating the costumers from the bartender and behind a wall with shelves filled with various alcohol brands and other ingredients.

It was made of white polished wood decorated with various big black kanji on the walls and paintings of samurais fighting some kind of monsters.

'Wait, those almost seem like shinigami and hollows' Tia wondered getting a little worried 'it could my imagination, but what if the owner knows about them? Would he recognize me?'

Riruka lead Tia to the counter and looked for the bartender, who was a girl slightly taller than her and had dark hair as short as Tia's, she had quite unique eyes; they were purple with stains of grey giving an alluring aura. She had snow white skin and was well endowed (just between Tia and Riruka). She was wearing a short black kimono with blue flower patterns that ended halfway down her thighs and it was opened more than enough to show her cleavage.

She was currently cleaning the glasses with a smile on her face humming "Secrets" from One republic.

"Yo Kaori" Riruka called her and she turned to them.

"Riruka-chan, so what happened with those guys" she looked at Tia from head to toe then smiled sultry and add "and who is your pretty friend?"

'Again the same word' Tia raised an eyebrow and sighed, she started to like the idea of staying there less and less.

"She's a girl I saved from the boors that were bothering you before, her name is…" she blushed before face palming but quickly recomposed.

"Ekhm, looks like you didn't tell me your name in the end" the girl tried to push the blame on Tia but the bartender just shook her head not buying it "so would you tell us?"

"Of course, my name is Tia Halibel it's a pleasure" she bowed slightly.

"Likewise, my name's Kaori Izumi" she returned the bow (obviously giving a better view of her breasts which Tia suspected, she did it on purpose), that woman emanated an aura of calm and peace "and please excuse Riruka-chan's lack of manners by not asking your name earlier" she gave her another bow. Riruka was about to give her a sharp response but Tia was faster.

"No she did ask my name, it was me who didn't gave her an appropriate answer"

"Yes! And anyway, what made you think that I would be that rude with a guest?!" she asked starting to get red from anger which Tia found funny.

"Well I could name several reasons, if the word of the customers is reliable." The bartender asked making Riruka go scarlet both of anger and embarrassment, adopting an expression that caused Kaori chuckle and Tia to suppress a smile.

She rarely had to do it these days.

"Well will you keep mocking me or can we return to the main reason we are here?" the girl asked trying to look unaffected.

"Ha-ha you really are no fun. Ok I assume you are talking about Tia-chan here, right?" The arrancar raised an eyebrow at the sudden chan suffix.

"Yes she is here to "obtain" some medicine from somewhere in the town so she will be staying with us for a few days" the way she explained made Tia think that she wasn't entirely comfortable with the little information she gave her. She could just wonder what kind of reaction will have the bartender.

"Ok" she simply said.

"What?" Tia and Riruka replied in unison.

"I said it's ok to me. I don't mind having more charming ladies around here" the arrancar didn't even bother to raise her eyebrow at this point "but as for the stealing part you still have to ask jiji for permission and maybe help" she said sternly.

"That's all? It doesn't matter you who she is or where she came from?" the girl asked.

"I think you know that both of us would be hypocrites if we minded that" she gave the girl a reproachful look making her hung her head in shame while Ti looked at her with confusion. "Do you want to ask me something?"

"Yes I have two questions if you don't mind" the bartender gesture her to continue "I guess by your words that this "jiji" took you in when he knew nothing about you right?" they nodded "then what kind of person he is?" Riruka was the first in answer, because she knew exactly what Tia was thinking.

"Well he has to be the most considered, sweet, and educated person I ever met" she said with a smile "he changed the opinion I had about men the moment I first spoke with him, oh and he's cute to" the bartender nodded in agreement.

"What do you mean by cute?" Tia asked curious.

"You'll understand when you meet him" she continued with a giggle "so don't worry she isn't by any means a…a…" she blushed.

"Whore-driver?" the bartender finished for her

"DON'T SAY IT LIKE THAT!" she yelled red as a tomato.

"Whatever, and your other question?" she addressed Tia.

"Yeah well it's pretty direct" she tried to choose correctly the words "how do you expect men not to bother you when you are dressed like that?" the bartender widened her eyes and then chuckled.

"And who do you think was the one who kicked them out?" Tia tried to hide his surprise "and if meeting pretty gentlemen or even ladies" she winked at Tia making her feel weird "just takes showing a bit of my charms, I'll risk to face the ugly ones from time to time" she finished fondling her "charms" worrying Tia and creeping Riruka out.

"Could you just tell us where jiji is before you start harassing her to?" the girl asked the bartender making her sigh in defeat.

"He's in the library. Here, I'll show you the way" she added sultry offering her hand to Tia.

"No need I know the way to and you have work to do, remember?" she took Tia's hand and subtly ran away.

* * *

Riruka lead Tia to the second floor through a hallway in the back wall that ended on a spiral staircase.

When they reached the stairs the arrancar couldn't bottle anymore what she just witnessed.

"Your friend…she's a little…"

"Yes, don't need to remind me" she growled at the bartender antics.

"And when you said "harassing me to" does that mean she harassed you to?" Tia asked curious.

"You say that like she doesn't do it anymore" tears started to form in her eyes "but every time I tell her to stop, she just goes further!" the girl said.

"O_O ok I'm sorry" she decided to change the subject "so, I don't want to offend but, what are you exactly? I mean the things you did back in the alley, you aren't a normal human" Riruka smirked.

"Well thanks for noticing it, as for your question jiji explains it better than me so you can ask him"

"I see, you seem to hold him in high regard" Tia observed and Riruka's smile become warmer.

"You can't imagine how much, he's more a grandfather to me than my own family" she suddenly stopped and looked at Tia with pleading eyes "listen I can see you are not used to be warm with other people but please try at least to be less cold to him. He isn't like most of people; he really is a good person"

The arrancar couldn't avoid feeling offended by that comment, she would never be rude with someone like the one the girl described, but she was a stranger to them so she couldn't blame her.

They climbed the stairs in silence and Tia could already smell the books of the library. When they got to the top they were rewarded by what seemed like the cross between a library and a labyrinth. Book shelves of about two meters high each one were placed randomly across the whole room making Tia wonder how could they possibly find something in this mess.

Riruka started to look for the man.

"Tsubasa-jiji! Where are you?" she yelled.

"I'm with the novels! Im coming" a clearly elderly voice sounded from behind them. After that the echo of a cane resounded across the whole room. And then Tia felt it.

His reiatsu.

It was just the reiatsu he was releasing unintentionally and she was sure that at the best it matched the one of the primera espada.

Yet it wasn't like any other reiatsu she felt before. In Las Noches all the reiatsu she felt was either wild and suffocating or grim and cold, even the one of her fraction was noisy most of the time.

But this one was…warm, it felt so calm and peaceful, even… nostalgic. It made her remember of the hot baths she used to have when she was alive, or the one which she took those baths.

Tia didn't realized she closed her eyes just enjoying the sensation the reiatsu gave, so she didn't acknowledged when the owner of said reiatsu arrived, and was standing in front of her.

"Psst Tia-san" Riruka waked her up of her daze, and Tia looked at her confused.

"What?" she asked.

"He is here" the girl stiffened a laugh.

"He is? Where?" she looked around not finding him.

"Down here dear" a new voice sounded from below making Tia jump a little.

Below her was standing an old man in his 70's at least. He was about one meter tall and slightly hunched; he had long light grey hair tied in a bun with also light grey moustache and beard that felled till his chest; his eyes were small, dark green and were hidden by small round glasses. He was carrying a cane on his right hand

He was looking at her with warm gaze captivating Tia a bit.

Actually it was enough for her to forget that she had to introduce herself. So the duty fell on Riruka, who was looking at Tia with mocking smile.

"Ekhm, jiji I'd like to introduce you to Tia Halibel, I rescued her from some thugs that Kaori had to kick out from here" she said with pride "Tia-san this is Kobayashi Tsubasa, the owner of this bar and my mentor" she praised him "would you like to say hi?" she mocked her.

"Oh… of course, my apologies and it's a pleasure to meet you" she extended her hand.

"You don't need to, and the pleasure is mine" he shook her hand and Tia could swear she felt electricity, literately "actually i should be the one to apologize, for attracting those people" he bowed making Tia blush.

"P-please you dont need to bow, the mistake was totally mine for not notice them before"

"But it wasn't for me you shouldn't have to worry about that matter" he stated firmly "to make a woman unable to enjoy a peaceful night...inexcusable" the shame in his face and the finality on his tone made Tia uncapable to reject his apologies.

"Thank you" was all she could say and then she recieved a warm smile from the man.

"So, how can I help you?" the arrancar turned her gaze unsure of telling him the situation.

"I understand if you don't trust me, but believe me when I say that you can thrust him" Riruka assured her, so Tia sighed and told him what she needed.

"A friend of mine is seriously ill, as you can guess is not the typical illness and the medicine he needs is extremely hard to manufacture so we quickly run out of it. As I been told the only way to get more is from a man here in this city, and I doubt he would just give it to... someone in my position" the arrancar hoped that it was enough information but judging for the look in the girl eyes it wasn't.

The old man thought for a few seconds and then spoke

"I see… you want us to help you to get this medicine, am I correct?" he asked

"No, I would never ask that much, but I won't be able to leave after I get it for a few days at least. So if could let me stay here for the time being I would be extremely grateful" she bowed to him.

"I understand, Riruka-san could you prepare the guest room for her?" he surprised Tia

"I'm on my way" the girl replied and left leaving the old man alone with the arrancar.

"You are really ok with this?"

"Yes, is it really that surprising?" Tia gave him a blank stare "I always prided myself on my ability of judging people, and while I don't know much about you I can already tell you have good intentions… and a good heart" the arrancar couldn't avoid to blush at this both for the compliment and for the shame of not telling him the whole truth.

"Thank you for benevolence and…"

"Seriously you don't need to apologize to me" he gave her a reassuring smile but soon his expression turned serious "just one thing"

"What is it?"

"I would like to ask you one question before you leave, if that's ok with you" Tia was having a bad feeling about this, but it was the less she could do.

"Yes, of course" she answered him and then the good mood returned to him.

"Good, now I think you don't want to keep your friend waiting so do what you must and we'll be waiting you with dinner" she was about to open her mouth but the old man was faster "you don't need to keep thanking me either" he said with disarming smile so she could only blush (again) and then leave, hurrying up to her destination.

* * *

The night was dark, even more than usual, Tia was currently moving through the shadows created by the streetlights, and the shadows seemed to cover her like protecting of anyone who might see.

She was currently on the suburban area of the town, with many old Japanese houses placed close together. They were some variations but most of them were small familiar houses, with one floor, a small garden in the front and medium sized fences.

The arrancar kept walking for a few minutes in silence. She had brought her bag before coming to carry the medicines and was carrying it closer with her left arm.

According to the indications Tousen gave her it wouldn't be much longer to see her destination, so decided to not risk anymore and putted on her bracelet to activate the barrier. At first she felt nothing different, and then she remembered the barrier should allow her to pass through solid objects, so she decided to test it with one of the streetlights in front of her. She was pleasantly surprised when her hand went through it like if it wasn't there.

Content Tia rushed to her destination, the city center, not wanting to waste anymore time.

And then she saw it on the distance.

It was a small traditional Japanese house, made of light wood and paper, it was surrounded by high buildings from all sides but they were separated by some free space used for parking.

"Urahara's shop, there should be" and without thinking it twice, she walked to the house.

She was totally aware this could mean a death warrant, but she was more than willing to take the risks.

After all she made a promise to someone.

And her word with that person, worth that and more to her.

* * *

First of all i wanted to thank you for taking the time to read the crap of this poor idiot, at first i did it only for self-satisfaccion but i didnt knew it would like to more people.

Now, many of you are probably asking "when the **** will LOL make an appearance in the story?!", but don't worry in the next chapter your prayers will be answered. But if you want a LOL fanfic read my other story: _Knights of the frozen ashes (League of legends)_ and if you are wondering why they are called the same it's because in some point the stories will cross one with the other, read my profile for more info.

Anyway i think thats all for the moment, so LOL players, keep conected because next chapter a champion that will put Ichigo's bankai to shame will apear!

Next chapter: _"Mist of war"_


	5. Chapter 4 Mist of war

First of all i would like to apologize for delay so much in writing this chapter, but it got longer than i expected, and im not very familiar with the champion i wrote about.

Anyway i hope you like it and i'll try to write the next chapter as quickly as possible.

(Ps: don't forget to review!)

* * *

Chapter 4

Mist of war

Tia was walking nervously to the shop, slower with each step.

She wasn't even fooling herself with the possibility of winning a fight against the owner of the enormous reiatsu that she felt inside the building. The fact that he or they were probably asleep and emitting it unconsciously made her surer that she had only one option.

She had to make it quietly, or else she'll die.

With this optimistic thought she arrived to the building and looked at it hesitant at first. Then Tousen's words echoed in her head.

'Is it really worth it?' she pondered this thought for a few second but then shoved it away, because the answer was obvious.

Of course it was. She didn't even know what make her doubt even for a second. She knew the risks perfectly and decided that they didn't matter even before she thought of taking this mission.

'I have to try. And if I perish at least I would have no regrets' so she didn't think of it anymore and passed through the doors.

The insides of the shop were strange for the arrancar, because they were so normal that she would never have guessed the owner was a shinigami captain. Entering the shop she was greeted by four stands filled with almost all sorts of candy. They were placed vertically two on her left and two on her right. And at the bottom there was another sliding door with a hallway to the left and right. In short it looked like a completely normal candy shop.

'Don't underestimate that man' she recalled once more one of Tousen's advices and decided to fully follow this one.

According to what she was told, the storage was in the right hallway so she went immediately there. Quietly despite her barrier she didn't want to push her luck.

Tia walked through the hallway and then to the storage in silence thrusting only her pesquisa to guide her in the pure darkness she was currently into; while the medicine she needed didn't emitted any reiatsu at all, she had trained that ability so she could create an image in her brain of what was in front of her without using her eyes at all, like the night vision. And since it allowed her to read in dark to, she could find what she was looking for without problems.

Or so she thought, she didn't expect it to be surrounded by some kind of barrier. She'd been told that the medicine was rare but not that valuable.

The arrancar sighed and read the label on the box again to ensure that it was the right one.

'Reiatsu degeneration antibodies' she sighed. She used then her pesquisa to figure out how strong that barrier was, and found out that it was just a trigger of an alarm. She had no means to deactivate it so the only option left was to take the content of the box and run hoping that no one detected her.

She activated a seal on her bag and it transformed in a special suitcase to keep the jars intact and to save having to answer questions like "¡¿why is she carrying a corpse bag?!"

She took a breath, and opened the box activating the alarm.

* * *

 _In the room of Jinta y Ururu._

In a room of 5x5 meters two children were sleeping peacefully.

One was a short red haired boy of around eleven years with a trail of drool falling through his pillow which he was hitting asleep mumbling incoherent words.

The other was a girl of the same age with two ponytails who looked pretty cute lying in dreamless sleep. She was basically the incarnation of innocence, it seemed like she was devoid of all evil.

Her eyes shot opened.

And they weren't the eyes a little girl should have; they were the eyes of a soulless being.

Like a machine.

"Intruder" she said to the nothing and in a second she was standing and heading to the storage

* * *

 _Back with Tia_

The arrancar lady was currently moving all the phials that were in the box (there were plenty of them) to her suitcase with hurry yet with caution; she didn't want to get caught but she didn't want to had come all the way here for a lot of broken jars.

She was almost done when her pesquisa alerted her of a particularly strong reiatsu approaching. She turned her gaze so fast that she almost broke her neck, only to detect two more reiatsu signatures that overshadow the first one like an elephant facing a mouse (a/n don't look at me, you explain it to her if you want a/n).

'That must be, Urahara' she cringed a bit in fear 'one of those two alone could be able to defeat me but both of them…' Tia couldn't afford risking the medicine in a fight anyway so she retook her labor forgetting a bit the caution a bit.

The weakest reiatsu was approaching at redoubled step and the arrancar lady had to admit she felt a little intimidated by the emotions it emitted.

None.

Finally she put the last phial on the suitcase and stand up ready to leave as fast as her legs allowed her, just in time for the lights to turn on.

Tia froze for the first few seconds, and then she stiffly turned around to see who did it.

She saw a little girl standing at the entrance looking around with dead gaze and behind them there was a tall dark skinned man with sun glasses and moustache and another one with neck length blonde hair and a worried expression on his face. They were wearing black and light green pajamas respectively.

The girl walked right in front of Tia making her panic a little but she quickly recomposed herself when the girl shook her head searching for something but didn't notice her.

'They still can't see me' she decided to not push her luck more and head towards the exit. She could hear the men discussing who or what could set the alarm and disappear before they could arrive. She passed through the door and run to Riruka's bar; she decided to take the chance and thrust them at least for a few days.

She reached expecting Riruka to ask her what she was looking for or who exactly did she stole from, but she was pleasantly surprised when she asked simply if she got what she was looking for and nothing more.

Tia answered with the truth and after that Riruka just showed her the room where she'll be staying.

It was nothing special, just a space of around 5 square meters with a bed, a small desk and a wardrobe

Riruka opened the wardrobe and give Tia a pink nightgown with red flower patterns.

Tia raised an eyebrow at first but seeing the enthusiasm on the girl face she accepted it. They said goodnight to each other and Riruka left the room leaving the arrancar lady alone.

She spent a few minuets staring at the ceiling in the dark, thinking about how much her plan changed in a matter of less than an hour. Then, when she couldn't hold it anymore, she fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

"Tia-chan! Breakfast is ready!"

Kaori's voice woke the arrancar up. At first she didn't acknowledge where she was but a slight smell of strawberries coming from her very feminine nightgown saved her.

She sighed and then proceeded to dress up with her gigai's outfit (despite having fresh clothes in the wardrobe she didn't felt comfortable wearing something of people she just met).

She went down the hallway and then to the dining room behind the bar. Kaori was cooking something on the kitchen, Riruka was eating donuts and Tsubasa was drinking tea.

Riruka noticed that she arrived "oh look, she's awake" she said and all heads turned to Tia.

"Oh, good morning Halibel-san, I hope you slept well" the old man greeted her

"Good morning to you to, and I slept well thank you" she bowed

"So Tia –chan, what would you like for breakfast?" Kaori asked her with conspiratorial smile.

"Thank you but I wouldn't like to be a burden" Tia answered trying to sound grateful but didn't notice she just fell for her trap

"Aww, don't worry I can teach you to make it yourself so you don't have to worry about that" she was about to accept the offer but Riruka interrupted her.

"Tia-san mind if have a word with you, in private?" the tone she used left no room for objections, so she followed her to the bar leaving a chuckling Tsubasa and a disappointed Kaori.

* * *

When Riruka was sure they were out of earshot she took some money out of her purse and addressed to Tia.

"Well I think she is not listening, take this there is a cafe a few blocks from here, order a coffee cup or something you like, I will tell Kaori you went for breakfast outside and make sure she doesn't follow you but you have to go now" the girl said with worry confusing the arrancar.

"Just exactly what do you intend?" Tia asked her with suspicion "I know your friend can be a little too…fond, but I think you are exaggerating, she just wanted to teach me how to cook" Riruka snorted

"Yes she tried to 'teach' me to but that's just the beginning!" she shivered "then she will try to guide you by hugging from behind, then she will taste what you cooked from your hand and when you finally learn to do it on your own she will want to…praise you" the girl was trying hard to fight her shivers and the blush on her face, and the arrancar widened her eyes at the fear she was emitting.

"Ehm, thanks for the warning, I guess" she wanted to sooth the girl somehow but something told her that it was futile "I'll leave now" she took the money an walked out the bar leaving a slightly traumatized Riruka behind.

* * *

Tia walked through the streets searching the cafeteria Riruka mentioned. She took the chance to take a better look at the city, and despite she tried, she couldn't avoid comparing it to hueco mundo.

Because it was the exact opposite

There it was all dark and silent. The mood was even worse; if it wasn't gloomy and lonely (Ulquiorra) it was bloodlust and destruction (Grimmjow, Nnoitra and several others) but here there was more life and color in the corner than the one she had seen in her whole hollow life, people were mostly smiling and the children were laughing not worrying about anything.

Tia smiled at this sight, if it wasn't her she would have thought of taking Koa, her fraccion and moving here. She snorted at this thought, if life wasn't difficult in hueco mundo it wouldn't be many better in a land constantly patrolled by shinigami.

She reached the corner and then saw a sign with a mermaid attached to the wall and read it aloud.

"Starbucks" looking at the window she could see that it was indeed the café Riruka mentioned. 'Why a cafeteria would use a mermaid as symbol?' she thought entering the place 'and what is the name supposed to mean?'

Tia looked around the place and it was, just like she thought, as lively as the outside. The place was quite big with tables placed across all of it and a counter at the center filled with machines and ingredients that Tia couldn't recognize.

'I knew I was forgetting something important' she sighed and got closer to the counter, despite not knowing the general system or even how coffee tasted like she decided to push her luck.

She reached the counter and a man in his 20's with glasses and short black hair got close to her.

"Good morning, what would you like to order" he said with a polite smile, Tia decided to cut the chase.

"Well, actually I'm a foreigner so I never drank…coffee before" she admitted with a slight blush.

"Ouch, we have to fix that" he quickly went through the list of flavors "I think we should go with the classic cappuccino, for being your first time I'll tell you most of people prefer using a lot of sugar to flavor it cause it tastes quite bad alone"

"Why would huma-people create a drink that tastes bad?" Tia asked curious.

"Guess you can call it human stupidity" Tia surprised herself for someone referring to his own kind like that "and to eat how about a chocolate cupcake?"

"I'll like that" she answered unable to admit that she didn't know what a cupcake was either.

The man gave her her order and she sat on a nearby table. She looked at the cup of coffee puzzled before deciding to drink it.

She didn't even managed to pick up the cup before her senses clicked.

Spinning her head she saw a group of five men that were looking at her in an indecent manner.

She decided to ignore them; it wasn't even eight in the morning so the chances of them to go any further were less than…

"Hey, I guess you are you new around here?" he sat next to Tia with his friends surrounding her "cause I'll remember such a beautiful face" he said wanting to make a compliment and he could have made it if it wasn't for his and his friends lecherous expression.

Tia sighed wondering if she was cursed. She decided to ignore them and hope that they would get tired eventually.

"So you are the shy type huh? That's ok we can help you with that" other one said earning laughs from his companions.

By now Tia was praying to whatever god was in the sky to get her out of this.

And then, for no special reason, she turned her gaze to the side, and met brown.

Brown is the most common color for the eyes, but that gaze was far from normal.

In those eyes she could see all the emotions she had been trying so hard to forget.

Sadness, happiness, grief, bravery, fear, compassion, despair, love… but above all passion.

Passion to protect the ones he loved, to never give up. It was a gaze that made her feel ashamed, overwhelmed, even ho…

She broke the gaze before his mind dared to complete this thought.

"So, no one will tell me what the hell are you doing?" the owner of the gaze asked and the thugs around Tia looked at him with smug grins.

"Oh look who's here! The carrot head Kurosaki!" the first one said "well it happens that we are just chatting with our new friend" he put his hand on Tia's shoulder effectively disgusting her "so I guess you have nothing to do here, get lost" then his friends step between Tia and her new savior Ichigo sighed.

"Are you really friend of this guys?" he addressed her, the first thug was about to reply but Tia was faster.

"I never met them before…" the man interrupted still don't getting it.

"Well but that doesn't mean we can't be friends now"

"…and I don't wish to" she ended and finally he lost it

"Now who do you think you are talking to" he grabbed Tia's collar. She was about to brake his hand but someone was faster.

In a blink the man was flying to one of the unoccupied tables, scaring his friends and surprising Tia.

Her new savior did an aikido throw in a speed that should be impossible for humans.

Some of the other thugs had the idea of helping his friend but they faced that man before and it didn't end well for them, so they just backed a few steps from him, then he sent them a scowl making them run for their lives.

"Oi, get back here! Don't leave alone with…hey aren't you going to do anything?!" he addressed to one of the workers which Tia identified as the one who served her coffee. He had been looking at the situation with a smug grin.

"What? I didn't see anything, maybe I have something o my eye" Tia once again widen her eyes in surprise. Not that she was ungrateful but she wouldn't expect him to allow that kind of behavior in his establishment.

'Humans are certainly strange creatures' she thought and then turned her attention to the man that came to her aid and saw him scowling to the last thug.

"Do we really have to do this the hard way?" he asked him. As an answer he paled and ran out the café for his life.

He turned his gaze to Tia and noticed her amused expression.

"Are you ok? They didn't hurt you did they?" he asked with concern and abandoning his scowl for a while. But turning his eyes kinder made Tia feel even more overwhelmed than before so she couldn't hold the gaze again.

"Oi, what happened? Did I say something wrong?" he asked making Tia feel guilty for making him think that she offended her.

So she forced her eyes in his direction and then spoke.

"No you haven't offended me. And im fine, thanks for your help" he sighed in relief and sat in front of her.

"Good, and you don't need to thank me, after all, I can't walk two blocks without having to pacify a group of high school morons" Tia nodded in agreement.

"No need to tell me, I had an encounter myself less than six hours ago" she sighed "maybe my… friend was right, I just have bad luck" she didn't know how to address the people she just met, but they helped her pretty much so she guessed it was the less she could do.

"Nah, as I told you those kind of guys infest most of this city so is not very rare to meet them" he said and then gained a smug aura "if anything you were lucky that I was passing by when they were bothering you" Tia catch a bit of his smugness.

"I don't remember asking for your help though" she stated "Im more than capable of defending myself" he smiled in a way that made Tia turn her gaze again.

"I don't doubt it, so in that case treat as a selfish act" Tia widened her eyes "cause I can't stand the sight of a bunch of assholes taking advantage of…a…woman like you" he said with his cheeks reddening.

"What do you mean by "a woman like me"?" she asked curious, deepening the man's blush. He found himself deeply tempted to tell her that she was beautiful but what left his mouth was…

"You know…pretty?" Tia found herself again as a target of that word, but when it came out of his mouth it didn't felt that bad.

Maybe it even felt good

Her mouth edges went up in a repressed smile.

"I think you deserve an introduction" she regained her neutral face "my name is Tia Halibel, it's a pleasure" she offered her hand. The man smiled

"Kurosaki Ichigo, the pleasure is mine" he shook her hand.

BROOOOOOOOM!

A thunderous sound echoed from the sky. By instinct Ichigo, Tia, and the whole district went out of their houses or stores to see what caused such commotion. But nothing could have prepared them for what they saw

The sky…was shattering apart

About ten cracks (cause that was the closest thing to what people were seeing) were opening above their heads, with an eleventh one on the center being the biggest one, were breaking the sky apart, dropping lightning bolts and some kind of black smoke.

'What the hell?' was all Ichigo could think, he had seen many strange things, and with him being a substitute shinigami there where plenty of them, but nothing like he was witnessing. Without knowing, Tia was having similar thoughts.

'That is definitely not a garganta' she thought with an inexplicable feeling of worry.

The black smoke keep emerging from the cracks and the people knew that it was question of minuets before it covered the streets.

"Halibel-san" Ichigo called Tia's attention in a bizarrely calm tone "I want you to take as many people as you can to the café, lock the doors and stay inside" she just furrowed her eyebrows.

"I told you I'm more than capable of defending myself"

"What? But just look! Whatever that thing is…" he noticed her determined expression and then remembered her unique and powerful reiatsu.

'Maybe she does have something under her sleeve' he smirked 'Heh world is certainly small' he made a decision

"In that case I need you to stay here and protect the people if things turn bad" Ichigo said and then head to the bathroom of the café.

"Wait, what are you going to do?" Tia asked curious.

"Im gonna take a look" he said giving her more questions than answers. Meanwhile the smoke reached the floor and started covering the streets. The people around entered the closest building as fast as they got out. But Tia remained outside having a very nasty feeling.

* * *

Ichigo almost rushed to the bathroom. After he was sure that there was no one around, he got in and closed the doors.

Wasting no more time he opened his bag and pulled something out.

"Oi Ichigo, what is all the commotion about? I could hear too many pretty ladies scared" Kon said.

"Not now Kon, listen I have actually no idea of what is happening but I have the feeling that it's nothing good, so I need you to make sure that people doesn't panic, can I count on you?" he asked thrusting him a very important task.

"You can be sure of that!" he answered with passion.

"Good and remember what will happen if you disappoint me" Kon paled and Ichigo just slammed his substitute badge on the lion taking it's soul candy of it and then swallowed it, leaving his body.

"I'll be going now, remember, I'm counting on you" he shumpo'ed out and Kon took Ichigo's bag and ran after him.

* * *

Tia stood on the streets looking how the black smoke started swallowing the streets. When it got close enough to her she could identify it as some kind of mist.

She turned her head and looked at the scared crowd that filled the café, and felt an unusual impulse for joining them. But Tia never acted based on her impulses so she just ignored.

Which each passing second the mist got closer to her, and the impulse of running on the opposite direction grew more.

When it was about to touch her she took a step back without noticing it but nothing else.

And then it touched her.

 _Pain_

 _Agony_

 _Despair_

 _Nowhere to run_

 _No one can stop him!_

 _Shadows_

 _The shadows will consume us all!_

Before realizing it, Tia was already running from the mist. She didn't know what was happening to her. The closest thing she could think of was that her survival instinct went mad. She just felt fear, terror. It was so thick that she could barely breathe, like if her brain abandoned all its functions and focused only on escaping.

She wondered how much time she'd been running, but guessed that a lot since her body felt like it was about to explode.

When she couldn't hold it anymore she fell on her knees trying to catch her breath.

For years she managed to hide her emotions but today she had to fight her tears back. While the fear had dissipated a bit it wasn't the main problem right now, but the humiliation.

She could only imagine what Aizen-sama will do to her. Yet, in that moment, facing his wrath sounded far more pleasant than returning to that… thing.

Begrudgingly, she turned her head back and noticed that the mist stopped a few meters behind her, creating a black dome that covered at least twenty blocks.

Then she realized that Riruka, Kaori and Tsubasa-san were still in the mist.

Now she felt guilty for leaving them like that when they had done so much for her, but then remembered the powerful reiatsu she felt from Tsubasa. So she hoped it wasn't just for show and that he would be able to protect them.

A big crowd gathered around her to see the dome. With heavy heart she started wondering what she should do next when her senses clicked.

A shinigami. A very powerful one in fact had appeared and was fighting. She expanded her senses out of curiosity and recognized it.

It was the Kurosaki guy.

She had felt he had a powerful reiatsu before but she would have never guessed he was a shinigami.

And for what she could feel, he wasn't winning.

'What should I do?' Tia wondered, shinigami where her enemies but that man helped her, trusted her those persons and the eyes he had… she was sure he didn't deserved to be sacrificed.

She looked to the sky, what would her fraccion think if they knew she helped a shinigami? She didn't had the answer, but she knew what Koa would think if she didn't help him.

She wouldn't be able to look him in the eyes again, so she made her choice.

With a bit of effort, she managed to get through the crowd to a back alley where no one would find her.

Then she repeated the process, she made her reishi loose so her gigai would just slip from her.

When she was out, she hid her body well and wasting no more time she soared to sky and ran to the mist prepared for whatever was inside it

Or so she thought

* * *

 _With Ichigo_

The substitute shinigami passed through the crowd and then out of the café closing the doors behind him. He was a little worried he didn't see Tia but like she said she could take care of herself.

He looked around but he couldn't see more than ten meters away from him due to the black smoke

'Wait a minute, this is mist' he thought, with a strange sensation of fear tingling in his head. He tried to shove it away but it just kept growing, obscuring his thoughts.

'Fuck what the hell is happening here!' he was about to jump onto the crack in the sky when he heard the screams of a woman.

He rushed to the source of the sound and when he got there he found a woman late in her forties kneeling and bracing herself and… had a chain of fate on her chest

Just when he was about to reach her she started screaming again.

"¡NOO, THE SHADOWS, THE SHADOWS!" Ichigo tried to calm her down with no avail. He sighed and was about make the konso, feeling horrified at her screams.

But the screams of the woman were nothing compared to what he heard next.

The sound of horse hooves.

But they didn't sound like normal hooves. Each time the sound reached Ichigo's ears he felt like if his life was getting closer to its end.

It was a sensation not from this world. And to make matters worse the sound was getting closer, and when it finally arrived he widened his eyes in horror.

He was assaulted by all sides for what could only be described as an army of spectra horsemen armed with pole arms effectively surrounding them.

Ichigo paled at this sight. He could see the bloodlust on the eyes of the creatures, hear the erratic beat of his heart and feel the silence suffocating him.

A silence that made his heart stop when it was broken by the sound of more hooves.

Judging by the time between steps it was only one horseman this time, but it was different from the rest; it was slower, like if it was savoring the fear its steps caused on the substitute shinigami.

Ichigo was so scared that he didn't see the horseman until it was in front of him.

He slowly lifted his gaze only to meet a pair of cold sinister eyes digging into his soul.

His fear was renewed by the fact that the creature wasn't a horseman but a centaur, or rather the armor of a centaur worn by some kind of green energy.

They looked in the eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Ichigo felt very small under its gaze of superiority.

The silence kept until the creature decided to broke it

 **"Free their souls"** all the horsemen jumped at him ready to take his life.

The substitute was so scared that he almost forgot to dodge. So he was a second late in taking the woman and jumping to the air, as result one of the horsemen pole arms gazed his elbow and the woman's ankle.

Ichigo gasped in pain and when he checked at the woman's wound he petrified.

Her legs were turning into glowing particles and floating to the horseman weapon.

He looked in the woman's eyes. They were flooding with fear, cascades of tears falling down her cheeks and a silent scream on her mouth.

The young shinigami felt useless. He couldn't do nothing, just watch the woman vanish and merge with the creature

They fell in silence again and like before the centaur.

 **"Is vary rare to meet a soul capable of resisting my enslavement"**

That snapped Ichigo out of his daze, in one movement he was onto the centaur which almost lazily blocked his vertical slash.

"Who the hell are you!? What are you doing here?!" he asked, fury clouding his fear.

 **"And it's even more rare to meet a soul capable of defending itself"** the creature smirked and in one quick motion pushed Ichigo away.

"Didn't you hear me?! I asked who you are!?" he dashed to him once more.

 **"You'll know soon enough"** one of the horsemen blocked Ichigo's way. He slashed him horizontally but was surprised when his sword just went through it like if it wasn't there. Then the horseman went for a stab and he tried to block it but this time as well its weapon just went through Ichigo's sword and pierced his chest

Ichigo screamed in pain and move his hand to the wound…but there was none.

Instead, the fear returned to him with greater force, making him fall to his knees.

 **"Can you feel it now?"** the creature asked him **"that is fear, the most basic of natural of all"** it got closer to him **"fear of dying, fear of being crushed"** he lifted Ichigo's chin with the tip of his weapon.

 **"Behold the power of the shadow isles, the shadow that is death, the shadow that is war"** Ichigo felt blood dripping from his chin **"the shadow that is, Hecarim"** he lifted his weapon to deliver a final blow.


	6. Chapter 5 Another league

Another league

"¡Give it a rest already!" Riruka yelled pushing Kaori of her.

"Riruka-chaaan ¿why are you so mean to me?" she whined.

"Mean?! I'm just running away from a serial rapist!" the girl tried to sound angry but her pale skin and cold sweat made it difficult.

"But that thing in the sky creep me out! And I need my little plush doll to comfort me" Kaori added sultry.

"NOW YOU ARE CROSSING THE LINE!" she continued escaping from her "Tsubasa-jiji please help me!" the girl cried for help but the old man was too busy watching the black mist descending from the cracks in the sky.

He watched it with worry, and hints of nostalgia.

'This one isn't like last time; it is… more sinister' he thought with fear.

"Oh screw this! I'm vouching for whatever that thing is instead of being harassed a second longer!" she was about to run through the door and that action snapped Tsubasa out of his daze.

"Riruka-san! Stay away from the doors!" he yelled making the girl stop with a slight yelp, then he slammed the tip of his cane against the floor.

The hit echoed trough the whole building, and not even a second later all the doors and windows shot closed, locked and sealed with a green light.

Just in time for the mist to reach the streets and then the bar.

The girls noticed this and stopped their cat and mouse game looking at the old man with worry.

"Jiji is something wrong?" Kaori asked with an unusually serious expression.

Instead of an answer she got the sound of something slamming against the door.

Their heads turned to the direction of the sound of the doors and then to the sound of the windows.

"KYAAA! What the hell is that!" The girl shouted horrified at the sight of a horseman slamming a pole arm in the window trying to break it, but each time it crashed a green light repaired it.

At this point Riruka was creeped out as well as Kaori, who was covering her mouth with her hand in shock. And as for Tsubasa, well, he was trying his best to mask his dread expression with a serious one.

However the girls managed to see through it

"Jiji…" Kaori started.

"Now listen" he interrupted her "this is what we are going to do: Riruka-san you are going to stay with me and use your powers to help me extend the reach of my seal, we need to save as many people as we can"

"O-ok" she moved behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders

"Kaori-san you are the only one that can stop the mist from growing more, you have to go up as much as you can WITHOUT going outside, then you will use your barrier to cut the growth, understood?"

"I understand but, just what are we facing Jiji?" she asked worried.

"I'll tell you later, now we have work to do" Kaori didn't pressed more and went to do her task.

'I pray it won't end as bad as then'

…

Time seemed to slow down for Ichigo. The weapon of that thing was slowly coming down to take his life, savoring his fear.

'This is how it ends?' he thought, for some reason his brain couldn't process another thought, there was just too much fear.

'Why? Why it has to end like this?' suddenly, more fearful images appeared on his head.

Him failing to protect Rukia, him murdering the kid Kariya, him dying at Hecarim's hands.

But the worst was him failing to protect his mother.

Now he could se her last moments, when she acted as a shield to protect him from Grand fisher, when he tried to help her but was too weak to do it, and she in her dying breath.

The light was slowly leaving her eyes, as well as the vision became darker and the creature's weapon became closer.

" _Ichigo…"_ his mother tried to call him, and just when the vision loosed its light…

"… _don't die"_ Ichigo gasped

The next thing he noticed was that his sword filed between him and the pole arm of his enemy.

Ichigo turned his gaze to the creature and notice surprise in his face.

'Right, I can't just give in the fear like this' his face became determinate 'my friends, my family, all the city; I will protect them!' a blue light started emitting from his sword, surprising the creature even more.

"Getsuga tensho!" Ichigo screamed releasing a wave of blue energy to his opponent, pushing him a few meters back.

Hecarim watched at his opponent with amusement; he had a completely different person in front of him. He smirked

" **Maybe you aren't a waste of time after all"** he said **"I told you my name warrior, now tell me yours"**

Ichigo had the feeling that he wouldn't get any answers from him by force, so he opted for playing his game for a while.

And maybe protecting the city in the way.

"Kurosaki Ichigo, substitute shinigami" he didn't expected the creature to raise its eyebrow.

" **Kurosaki, Ichigo?"** he replied incredulously. ' **There's no way that this weakling is the white one… I'll have to test it'** not a second after he thought that he was delivering an horizontal slash to Ichigo's neck.

He widened his eyes and managed to block it at the last moment with his sword. He was about to make distance but the creature spun its pole arm and hit his unprotected side with the blunt side of his weapon sending him flying to the wall of a nearby house.

Ichigo quickly regained his stance and was about to deliver a getsuga to his opponent but again had to use his sword to block a powerful thrust aimed for his heart.

He tried to parry it to the side but the force of the suddenly grew so much that it lift him from the ground, pushing him through the concrete of the wall and then slamming him on the ground.

Then his instincts told him to move aside, and with good reasons, if he hadn't did so his head would have been crushed by an enormous horse hoof.

He stood immediately, but it wasn't fast enough tough if the tearing pain in his back as Hecarim slashed it was an indication.

Immediately he jumped as far as he could from him, and from the look the creature gave him he allowed him to do that.

" **My patience has a limit boy, if you have hidden aces you better use them now"** he said making Ichigo growl in frustration.

'He is just too fast, almost as…' the young shinigami widened his eyes 'I didn't want to use it in the middle of the city. But it could be worst if I don't finish him now' he didn't need more second thoughts.

"Fine, maybe I underestimated you a bit…" he pointed his sword at the creature with his right hand while holding is forearm with his left hands "…but it ends now" he lowered his head as Hecarim raised an eyebrow.

"BAN-KAI!" a tornado of black energy surrounded Ichigo at the same time his spiritual pressure increased enormously.

Hecarim had his eyes widened at the growing power of his opponent. He lazily parried the rubbish that flied his way waiting for Ichigo to reveal himself, until he finally did.

To say that he was surprised would be a severe understatement.

Ichigo was now dressed on a black trench coat that reached his heels zipped only in his belly showing his chest in a V neck, it was also ragged at the bottom borders and the inner layer was red.

But the killer point was his sword, it was now like a simple katana except that it was black with the diamonds of the hilt being red, it had a short black chain at the bottom of the hilt and the guard being a variation of an X.

The young shinigami saw the curiosity on the expression of the creature and decided to satisfy it.

"Tensa Zangetsu" he said simply "happy now?".

Ichigo's new friend had a thoughtful expression as he scanned him from head to toes.

'Here it goes, he'll blab about it being wea…'

" **Impressive"** he said honestly surprising him **"to compress your energy in such small area. It should allow you to control all your power and use it at the same time. I've never seen it before, it's ingenious".**

He had no words for the sudden praise and the so precise description of his powers. But before he could dwell on it a very unpleasant voice appeared in his head.

' **Ara someone's** **getting serious for a change'** hollow Ichigo told him.

'Not now!' he brought his hand to his face 'I have to focus…'

A vertical slash approached fast to his head.

'Fuck, I don't have time for this. Just stay away' a chuckle came as response

' **I can't promise anything'**

With this Ichigo simply raised his sword to intercept Hecarim's attack.

Despite the pressure behind it he kept his defenses, so now their faces were inched apart each one of them trying to gain upper hand.

" **Apparently I was correct"** Hecarim told him **"and it seems your speed increased too"** he finally pushed Ichigo back. The young shinigami had his guard up and his senses alert while the creature didn't seem to take the battle to seriously.

" **Tell me, how much do your speed increase in that form? Does it escalate in relation with the reduction of weight of your sword?"** he asked him with genuine curiosity making Ichigo raise an eyebrow.

'I have never seen it that way' he thought "you seem to be really into this" the young shinigami stated making the creature chuckle.

It was a low, dark laugh filled with amusement like if he just heard a bad joke.

" **Je… this is a battle kid. You'll learn that battles are, how do young people say? My thing"** he took his stance again and charged.

He did a quick thrust but Ichigo side stepped and jump to the air.

True Hecarim was and expert in all what a battle meant, but he missed one thing…

So was Ichigo.

'It will be hard to keep up his weapon since he has so good control with it and there is also the advantage of being middle range, but if keep close I can counter arrest it. As for his legs having four of them evidently gives him great speed but the form should also make it difficult for him to change directions fast. The real problem would be his ghost lackeys but for some reason doesn't want to use them' the young shinigami watched the horsemen just standing frozen not even observing the fight.

'I must defeat him before he decides to use them' he thought as he observed him from above ' I just have to confirm if he can walk on…'

The creature ran to him as if standing on invisible stairs.

'…ok he can' with that cleared he dashed and engaged him in close combat.

They exchanged dozens of cuts and parries almost reaching an impasse.

The only reason Ichigo could land some blows on his opponent was because he was following his own advice of keeping close, but even so the creature managed to parry most of them leaving only non lethal wounds from his side.

Also there was the way he was taking the fight.

Hecarim looked completely relaxed, like not trying at all.

Although all his movements deathly precise, all intended with ending Ichigo's life. The killing intent that the creature emitted was slowly making the fear return to the young shinigami, and he was very aware that he was savoring his fear.

Ichigo tried to slash at his frontal legs but he just stood on his back ones and tried to kick him in the face.

He didn't dodged by centimeters so the hit reached his cheek bone sending him flying in the air.

When he regained his footing he had to dodge a series of ultra fast thrusts.

While he ended with many scratches he managed to side step the last one and used the momentum to deliver a strong slash to his back.

Hecarim obviously didn't expect that because he didn't managed to dodge at all.

He widened his eyes in surprise and spun to counterattack but Ichigo surprised him.

He spun his sword and made the previous maneuver in reverse delivering another strike.

The creature almost dodged this time receiving only minor cuts. He jumped to the air followed close by Ichigo. The young shinigami tried to stab him but the creature managed to dodge, then went for a slash to his unprotected side and Ichigo barely managed to block.

" **Not bad kid"** with a single impulse of energy he pushed him back to the ground **"it looks like I can get serious for once"** Hecarim said shocking his opponent.

"What do you mean? Weren't you serious all this time?!" he yelled starting to get worried.

" **You tell me"** he landed a few meters from him **"I'll show you the true power of my speed"** he started raising his reiatsu more and more, Ichigo could swear it took the shape of a flaming horse.

'Shit, if he can move even faster I'll have trouble' he flared his reiatsu to his very limits too, with the intention of matching his opponent's. From Hecarim's perspective it looked like some kind of skull.

"This ends now" the creature smirked

" **So be it"** nothing left to say they charged at each other.

For the first few meters nothing strange happened. Then Ichigo noticed that with each step, the centaur moved faster and faster.

And when their weapons collided…

"Argh!" Ichigo was pushed like a fly.

He bounced across the whole street and then crashed on a building, going through the walls, several times. Luckily it was an abandoned storage.

Ichigo stiffly got up panting felling his whole body aching.

Then as before he heard slow horse hooves approaching him.

Slowly his sight came back to him revealing the centaur's silhouette glowing with power.

" **You are probably wondering how I surpassed you so much out of nowhere. Well you have proven to be a decent warrior so I'll tell you"** one of the few things Ichigo hated was hearing his opponents gloating but this time he needed to know how to build a proper strategy.

" **Where I come people know me and fear me for many things, one of them being my speed, and by consequence my strength".** Ichigo widened his eyes.

"What do you mean?" the creature chuckled.

" **What I mean is that my strength increases along with my speed! And the one you just witnessed was barely my medium one!"**

His words froze Ichigo's blood as soon as he connected the dots.

" **I see you understand now; if don't manage to surpass my speed by enough margin, you will fall prey of my strength!"** he started approaching the young shinigami, who by now was running out of options, unless…

'No! If use it here then…' Hecarim started getting close. He gritted his teeth and extended his senses trying to find any civilians, but they had all fled 'please let everyone be fine' he jumped towards the creature pouring every drop of reiatsu he had.

Hecarim braced himself for anything but this was apparently the day of surprises.

"Getsuga tensho!" he released a point-blank attack of what seemed be pure darkness to his opponent.

The attack cut the storage in two and sent the creature flying many streets away.

When the commotion passed Ichigo was still panting. He shumpo'ed to the place where Hecarim must have ended and on the way noticed that his attack ripped apart the whole street, leaving the sewers at bare sight. If he hadn't molded the attack to be as slender as he could it would have surely damaged the surrounding buildings as well.

He reached at the end of the destruction and met only a cloud of dust.

'At least it's ov-…'

' **HAHAHAHA! At least you are good for something!'** hollow Ichigo spoke as normal Ichigo's sclera became dark.

'Fuck! I told you to stay away!' he mind ordered truing to keep in control.

' **And I told you I wouldn't promise anything. Now sit down and let me finish the job'**

'What are you talking about? It's already…'

An enormous reiatsu pulse hit them.

"Impossible"

" **Impossible?"** an amused voice sounded from the dust **"why people always say that?"**

The cloud dissipated and revealed a barely wounded Hecarim… surrounded by a golden transparent sphere, that was shattered in two.

" **Do you really think that I would venture in another dimension unprepared?"**

Ichigo didn't answer; he was too busy trying to keep his hollow from taking over.

" **Well I'm sorry to…"** they feltanother reiatsu. Both of them were surprised at the amount of power but none of them more than Ichigo.

'She really had hidden aces huh?' he smiled, but it soon fell from his face as Hecarim spoke again.

" **Deal with it"** he ordered and soon all the ghost horsemen that had been in standstill mode run towards the source of the new reiatsu.

"No!" he yelled. In any other case he would think that anyone that strong could handle herself alone but just one of those things could inflict deadly fear by just touching you not to mention dozens of them.

He tried to chase them but Hecarim blocked his path.

" **Don't worry, our battle will end soon"** with this the green energy beneath his armor started emitting a new aura of fear.

'What? It isn't as bad as before' he thought but out of nowhere small particles slowly started separating from his body leaving small gashes across his whole body.

'What the-!?' he looked at Hecarim again and noticed that the particles from his body where now merging with the creature's wounds, healing him.

 **" Dread spirit"** he informed him

Realization hit him almost painfully; he could end like that poor woman.

'I have to end this now' he glared at his opponent, and he glared back. He was now more determined than ever to win this fight.

(Thump)

He will protect the city.

(Thump, thump)

He will protect Tia.

(Thump, thump)

And definitely he won't die today.

(Thump)

They glared each other another second….

(Thump)

They charged in battle cry.

…

Tia has been running for what seemed like an eternity now. While she wasn't entirely sure of how much time she ran from the mist she was sure it couldn't be that much.

'The feeling of fear hasn't returned. Is it because of my spiritual form or my reiatsu?'

Then she realized another thing. That she passed the same barber's shop a few times already.

She stopped dead in her tracks and then landed next to said shop. While she had just seen it with side view there was no doubt that it was indeed the same building.

With an irritated sigh she made a small cut with her sword on the wall of the building and continued her way this time on ground.

After a few more minuets of running she saw, as predicted, the same barber's shop with the cut she made on the wall.

Furrowing her eyebrows she decided that she should try traveling outside the mist.

Just when she was about to jump in the air something called her attention.

The sound of horse hooves.

There were so many that Tia couldn't tell how many they were, but she could tell one thing.

They were approaching, and fast.

Having a nasty feeling she quickly pulled her sword and waited for them.

And then she saw them.

Nearly forty horsemen appeared from the mist armed with pole arms and roaring in battle cry. And Tia knew there were more to come.

So she decided not to risk herself and kept her stance waiting for the right time to come. When they where ten feet away from her she sonido'ed between them and made ultra-fast slashes to all of their necks intending to end it quickly.

After witnessing her sword just going through them without any harm a few times she finally admitted it was a pointless maneuver.

Before she could come with another strategy one horseman sneak behind her and stabbed her in the back and pierced right to the front.

Tia watched in horror to the blade coming out of her chest, but without drawing any blood.

'Wait…horror?' she thought. Since the arrancar can remember she had never felt fear in a battle, but the feeling she had when that thing pierced her, it was not from this world.

The horseman pulled his weapon out painfully. Tia fell to the floor and instantly checked her wound.

'W-what?... How is it… possible? How I am not wounded?' she thought.

The arrancar got up haltingly and took stance trying to shove the fear sensation away but with no avail.

She saw the horsemen slowly surrounding her, just watching her like trying to solve some problem.

Then she heard a voice on her head.

" **You don't belong here"** immediately the fear started clenching her heart paralyzing her.

" **I am not your enemy"** cold sweat formed on her whole body.

" **But I can see that man is"** she widened her eyes; this thing had Kurosaki!

" **Leave now, and I can end him for both of us"** that sentence gave Tia enough courage to answer.

"You assume… that you know how… I am" she choked "I'd never… let someone…" she fought the fear with all her might "be sacrificed like that!" she yelled to the air, and a second later the horsemen made three clean cuts to her back.

Tia opened her mouth but no sound came from it. She fell on her knees and felt her eyes watering.

Silence and darkness slowly started consuming the world around her, as the fear made its way to her heart, and to her repressed memories.

' _Mom!'_ a cracked voice resounded on her head _'Don't die!'_

" **Just what are you seeking?"** the monster voice echoed again.

' _No! Daddy don't go!'_ this time the voice sounded more tiny.

" **Why are you here?"**

' _Stop, it hurts!'_ Tia was now screaming openly, but she couldn't hear it. The darkness had already claimed her senses, and just before it claimed her conscience she heard the voice once more, but…

" **Why would you choose to suffer for your enemy? Just** _why do you fight?"_ a completely different voice sounded making Tia widen her eyes.

" _That's what you seek right? A world without sacrifices"_ the arrancar realized who was the owner of the voice.

" _Oh then… why do you fight?"_ Tia didn't remember the first three voices, but the last one she remembered way to well.

As well as a promise she made with the voice owner.

Before she realized, she was releasing every ounce of reiatsu she had in a desperate attempt to push the darkness away.

From the outside the horsemen where watching in surprise at the woman who was freeing herself from the fear induced by four of them.

And with a last scream of wrath, she was free.

Not even a second after that she jumped to the air making some distance.

'If I can't touch them then how will I defeat them?' she thought, then an idea hit her. She started pouring reiatsu into her blade and waited for them.

When they were close enough

"Ola azul!" she released a wave of yellow reiatsu to the horsemen, obliterating five of them instantly.

'Of course, if I can't damage them with matter I'll do it with energy' then she watched the damage her attack caused 'maybe I should be more cautious, such collateral damage it's unnecessary… I have to end them all at once'

With this in mind she started unzipping her jacket from the bottom up, revealing her mask and the little area of her breasts that it covered, as well as the shark like teeth that covered her lower face.

Then she sonido'ed right in their midst calling their attention and then jumped to the air.

Predictably, all of them ran after her in a perfect straight line.

'Just a bit more…' all of them were just a few meters from her ' now!' she made the fastest sonido she could and ended right below them before they noticed, giving her the perfect angle.

"Cero" she said simply, and a second after that a yellow beam shot from her hand to the sky, completely evaporating the remaining horsemen.

But she didn't have time to gloat, cause Ichigo's reiatsu hit her once more.

This time it was very erratic, threatening with disappear.

If she traveled in straight line she could end traveling in circles again, but if she didn't do it she would definitely arrive late.

The arrancar was running out of options, just in time to hear the creature's voice again.

" **Come woman, you may still be useful, and you may found this interesting (chuckle)"** it said. Tia didn't like the way it talked to her; it was still taking things for granted.

But she had more problems than that, so she just ran to the source of reiatsu, hoping to not be trapped in an endless loop again.

Her hopes prevailed because she finally arrived, but she would never expect what she saw.

In front of her was what could only be described as the armor of a centaur, which emanated the same aura of fear that she felt before

Yet that wasn't what caught her attention right now, but the thing that was in front of it.

"What is that?"


	7. Chapter 6 The bloody empereor

**Now I** **think** **you already know this but I don't own any of the images I use, I pull them out of the internet, like most of people in this site I suppose.**

 **I don't own League of legends, Bleach or any of its characters either. They are property of Riot games and Kubo Tite respectively.**

Chapter 6 

The bloody empereor

The substitute shinigami glared at his opponent with irritation. While both of them where screaming and were raising their power to their very limits inside his head he was in complete silence, trying desperately to comprehend the creature before him.

What was him?

Where did he come from?

And why was he doing this?

The longer those questions remained unanswered the more frustrated he got.

Their weapons finally clashed creating a massive whirlwind of reiatsu, which started destroying the closest buildings.

But the worst part was the wails and cries of pain that reached his ears. They came straight from the blade of his weapon.

They were disturbing him to the very core, almost making him falter.

And if was not enough…

' **HAHAHAHA! Is it me or this guy is kicking your sorry ass?!'** his hollow roared in laughter. Ichigo was having a hard time in keeping him at bay. He remembered what would happen if he let him do as he pleases, and after his last getsuga his control started faltering. Then he realized that that technique was never from his technique, but from _him_.

So if he used it again he would take control, but if he didn't use it...

" **Is this all you got?!"** Hecarim yelled finally parrying Ichigo's weapon to the side, then he instantly kicked him in the chest sending him flying.

The kick threw him out of balance, physically and mentally. So his control over his host suddenly turned very weak.

His sclera stained black.

Ichigo tried to regain his footing but some maniacal laughter seemed to disrupt his movements and thoughts.

He actually missed Hecarim running behind him and slamming the blunt side of his weapon against his back sending him flying to the ground with terrible speed.

The substitute shinigami wanted to land on his feet but he barely could move at this point; the black of his eyes kept growing and body went more and more numb as his mind control went duller.

He hit the ground creating a large crater. With effort he managed to stand, while Hecarim landed a few meters away from him.

" **You know, for a moment I really thought that you were the one I was looking for"** by this point Ichigo couldn't even hear him; the laughter in his head was melting his thoughts.

And the darkness in his eyes kept growing…

" **But I guess I was wrong"**

…till it consume them completely.

Hecarim suddenly appeared in front of him intending to stab his heart. And just before the blade pierced him he caught it.

Hecarim widened his eyes **'how? He ran out of power'** he pressed harder but the shinigami just strengthened his grip.

" **he-he"** the creature suddenly stopped his pressure not believing what he just heard.

" **What was that?"** he asked backing a step. As a reply, he heard the same sound a bit higher.

He lifted his face with the tip of his weapon.

" **HAHAHAHAHAHA!"** he was assaulted by a maniac laughter that echoed across the whole street.

" **What the…?"** he couldn't finish because Ichigo was already delivering a vertical slash aimed to his head.

He blocked the hit but the force behind it made him fall to the floor creating a huge crater.

Before he could stand again Ichigo kicked him in the gut sending him flying to a building, this time there were people inside.

Though Hecarim ignored them, he had worse problems that.

" **Hahaha!"** he heard his laugh over the horror screams and wails of the people. He couldn't phantom a reason why his opponent wouldn't use all of his power from the beginning but what he did knew, was that he easily rivalled him now.

He grinned; maybe travelling there wasn't a waste of time after all.

He stood on his legs and waited for him.

After a few seconds two golden eyes shined through the dust.

The creature lifted an eyebrow at this; he was sure that his eyes were brown.

But that was nothing compared to what he saw next.

" **Hahaha!-ack! (glurp)"** he started making gagging sounds before a white mass emerged from his mouth and started covering his face.

'… **just how many surprises does this boy have?'** he opened his mouth again and he expected another laughter.

" **GrrrraAAAAAAA!"** that was what he got, and just when his eyes finished widening a hand grabbed him by the face and started pushing him upwards through the floors of the building till they reached the roof.

Then Ichigo threw him to the street with enough strength to make him pierce the street and reach the sewers.

Hecarim was on his legs almost instantly. Then, he felt his opponent approaching so he delivered a horizontal slash just in time for him to block it with his sword pointed down. His face was now covered by a white mask

The pressure increased each second making the creature doubt if he could hold it much longer.

He was about to kick him in the gut but then he was surprised again.

A whole opened in Ichigo's chest but instead of blood a white mass emerged and started covering his body. This increased his power even more.

Almost lazily, he parried the creature's weapon to the side then spun and made a diagonal slash to his chest, there was no blood but the pain was visible on his face.

' **It can't be; the damage is more than my dread spirit can heal!?'** he thought **"who do you think you…"** he couldn't finish because Ichigo uppercutted him in the jaw sending him flying, and before he could stand again, he appeared above him and pointed at him with his index and middle fingers. A red light ball appeared on the tip and before Hecarim could dodge an energy blast hit him.

Hecarim flew in diagonal line and landed in a mall where many people that were hiding there screamed at his sight.

" **Je-je, it seems that I underestimate him, but not anymore"** he looked at the quivering peoplearound him **"perfect"** he grinned.

* * *

Ichigo didn't chase the creature right after he kicked him; the remains of his humanity noticed that there were many people in the mall and tried to prevent his other me from harming them. But then, something happened that made his resolve to falter.

The people's reiatsu signatures started disappearing.

It was just a millisecond of weakness in his influence but it was enough for his hollow to take control again. So in a blink he was in the mall searching for his opponent.

He found him pinning a man's body with his weapon and holding his soul with the other hand.

" **Grrrrr"** the young shinigami growled at the scene attracting his attention.

" **Ah, you arrived, now we can begin"** he applied more pressure on the soul of the man making his eyes roll back to his skull.

What happened next made both Ichigo and his hollow widen his eyes.

The soul of the man started morphing. He became more transparent, its colour changed to green and extra limbs grew of him.

When he was finished he had became one of his horsemen.

Whoever was in control of Ichigo now, he was left wordless.

" **Ahhh I'll never get over of the sensation it gives me doing this"** he said with arrogant and sadistic smile, earning a growl from the hollow **"oh you didn't like it? And what about the rest?"** he pointed around him and the other one looked.

The lower floor and the two from above were filled with horsemen.

" **Grrrrr"** the hollow growled and bared his sword making Hecarim chuckle.

" **Are you sure you want to fight in that condition?"** he looked at Ichigo's waist and when he followed the sight…

There was a pole arm sticking out of his stomach.

When he realised this a deep sensation of panic invaded him.

With trembling head, he turned around to see who impaled him.

His eyes returned to normal and widened at the sight of his mother.

" **M-mom?"** his voice was small and broken.

"It's all… your fault" his heart stopped "I died in pain because of you, now you'll finally pay the price"

Ichigo's soul was teared apart with her words. He wanted to cry in apologies, remember how her mother helped him out of the same situation before or at least play deaf. But before he could do anything another horseman suddenly appeared in front of him and stabbed him again.

When he moved his sight again this time his father was holding the weapon.

"You let your mother die; I've lost my wife but you will lose your life now" the despair that those things implanted on his soul was so thick that the only reason he wasn't screaming to the sky was because the fear stuck his voice in his throat.

His mind started to break; he tried with all his strengths to fight Hecarim's influence, but the other horsemen didn't just stand there watching.

One by one, they ran to Ichigo and stabbed their weapons from all sides, and every time the blades made contact with his skin another member of his friends and family was holding the weapon.

Yuzu, Karin, Inoue, Ishida, Chad, Rukia, Renji, and so on, each one of them saying things that in normal circumstances he wouldn't even believe.

But right now, they felt like if they were tearing his soul apart, piece by piece, slowly.

At some point, the grief in his heart grew so much that he couldn't stand anymore, he fell on his knees and then on his body.

He heard horseshoes approaching even above the hateful words of all his acquaintances, until they stop right in front of him.

He forced his head to look up somehow. Maybe it was him who allowed it but when he saw his face he started having problems breathing. It was like those green, glowing, bottomless pits of his eyes were sucking all the air of his lungs.

" **I take back what I said; you are** **strong, maybe even more than me"** the monster actually bowed his head in a sign of respect **"my job here it's done"** He made a gesture and all the horsemen pulled their weapons out of Ichigo's body. The young shinigami coughed a few times trying to catch breath, but he still felt to dizzy to stand up. The creature started retreating.

" **J…job?"** he said between breaths **"just… who are…you? …Why did you… come here?"**

Hecarim suddenly stopped, but not for answering his question. He as well as Ichigo felt another presence approaching fast.

Before anyone could comment about it, something crashed the windows of the mall and landed on the scene creating a dust cloud.

The dust dissipated, revealing the woman behind it.

In other circumstances Ichigo's face would have turned red as a strawberry at the revealing outfit of the arrancar lady but right now he could only fear for her while his sight was glued to her mask.

She looked at Hecarim first but the real surprise came when she saw the other creature.

"What is that?" Tia asked aloud 'it has to be a hollow; the shape and power level indicates it is a vasto lorde but the reiatsu signature is formed of only one hollow'

" **You finally arrived, so, what do you think?"** he pointed at Ichigo and Tia looked at him puzzled.

"I've never seen any hollow like it but now I think you are the most interesting creature here" she looked at the centaur with burning gaze "who are you? What are you inten…"

" **D-don't"** her gaze shot to Ichigo.

"That voice… you are Kurosaki-san?" now her attention returned to her saviour.

" **He's too… strong… run"** her amaze gaze became a frown.

"I'm sorry, but that's not for you to decide" she bared her sword earning a laughter from Hecarim.

" **You want to fight me? And why would you do that? You think I don't know who your true enemy is?"** Tia widened her eyes.

"What?"

" **I've seen it before, you are a demon like me; you feed on the souls of the dead and even those of your own kind. You resent people like him who hunt your species because of a hunger that you never choose"** the arrancar lowered her gaze for moments; he was completely right about what she was.

But…

"You still assume you know how I am" her reiatsu started increasing "never in my life I have consumed the soul of a human and I understand perfectly the resent shinigami have to my kind" he held the urge of looking at Ichigo while saying this, who in turn, was looking at her with wide eyes; now he knew what she was.

And if she was saying was true, he now respected her in a whole new level.

"And one more thing" her reiatsu started glowing yellow around her "I've had also felt what you are; you massacred all the souls of this building in order to increase your power" suddenly water currents appeared around her and took the shape of a heart "to sacrifice all those lives without purpose is something I will never forgive!"

Hecarim grinned darkly.

"Hunt, Tiburon!" the water surrounded her for seconds and then blade cut it in two revealing Tia's resurreccion.

She was skimpy dressed with only wide shoulder pads, a bra made of bone that barely covered her nipples, long white boots and gloves and a skirt made of bones.

And as for his weapon, it became a huge blade that resembled to a shark tooth.

While Ichigo was still slightly traumatized after Hecarim attack, the position he was gave him a perfect vision angle of beneath Tia's skirt. That was enough to return him to his prude self so his blood found its way to his face.

He turned his gaze in his decency and focused on something more important. The humongous reiatsu she now possessed that easily overpowered Hecarim's.

Still, he didn't seem intimidated at all.

"I'm going to ask this once more: what are your intentions here?" she said, but instead of an answer, he suddenly disappeared of sight.

'Fast!' she prepared for an attack but the centaur passed of her and took the hollow Ichigo by the throat and out of the mall.

Tia followed him and when she was about to reach him he threw Ichigo to the other side.

She quickly changed direction and catch him before he hit the pavement.

"Are you ok?" she asked concerned. The young shinigami started wondering how he kept control of his hollow but he had worse problems than that.

" **Please… just run… I don't want to see… anyone… suffering for… my fault"** his words made her felt warm in her chest.

"I appreciate your concern, but if I fight or not is not for you to decide" she put him on the floor and then took her stance.

She eyed her opponent, and widened her eyes when she saw him laughing.

" **HAHAHAHA! To think that I would find such warriors here! Not even in the whole Valoran I had found someone with your skills!"** he lifted his weapon over his head and started spinning it in a windmill fashion.

" **My name is Hecarim the shadow of war! What's your name woman!"** his pole arm started gathering the mist around him, making Tia worry slightly.

"Tia Halibel" she noticed that his eyes widened twice their size, and then he laughed harder.

" **This is just perfect"** the energy of his weapon started changing from green to crimson red **"to encounter not only the white one but the soul predator as well! The wheels of fate are spinning faster than we needed!"** crimson lightning bolts started hitting his pole arm as the mist formed a tornado around him.

" **I didn't have the need of using this since I learned it! Those fools in the league thought they knew my full power! Rejoice knowing that your skills had pushed me to this level!"**

'Not good' Tia thought; his reiatsu was increasing fast. The lightnings hit the creature with deafening thunders, with loud wails behind them.

Suddenly, the horsemen appeared from the mall, but they weren't walking; they were being pulled to Hecarim by the tornado he created.

The mist around the creature got thicker as the horsemen merged with the tornado, but for some reason Ichigo and Tia weren't pulled.

After the last horseman hit the tornado, the mist in it paralyzed, with a flaming red light inside it.

The mist slowly parted away revealing the one behind it making Tia and Ichigo gasp.

The energy inside the armor changed from green to red, and the armor changed as well with a similar design but less baleful and more intimidating. His head changed the most, giving him a helmet that covered his jaw with four fangs carved on it and two mighty bull horns growing of his head.

Both teens were in shock; his reiatsu was at a whole new level, and if it was not enough, something in their souls urged them to run and don't look back.

His eyes opened.

" **Dread emperor"** his voice sounded even more sinister **"so, which one of you wants the honor of being crushed by my ultimate form?"**

The arrancar eyed Ichigo for a second. He was trying to get up but in vain. So there was little choice.

"No one else will die today, but if you wish to fight someone that will be me" she said, and gathered her reiatsu forming a pillar of yellow light.

" **So be it"** he grinned and a red light surrounded him. The two opponents looked at each other's eyes.

To tell the truth, Tia didn't look in condition of fighting. The sensation of panic and irrational fear she had on her gigai before started crawling in her heart again. She knew it was the monster doing but she couldn't do anything to fight it or ignore it.

Cold sweat formed on her forehead. The creature knew that and could almost savor it.

While Hecarim's intentions remained unknown, his eyes didn't have too much mystery. It was obvious to the arrancar that he was an addict to battle and he liked nothing more than seeing his opponents at his feet except crushing them merciless. Because she saw that every day at Las Noches.

They just eyed each other for an unspecified amount of time, tension growing each past second.

A drop of sweat slid down Tia's face. Then it fell.

And when it hit the ground, they charged.

Tia used the fastest sonido she could pull, while Hecarim just ran and Ichigo noticed he was faster which each step.

'No!' he was about to warn Tia, but it was too late.

"Tridente!"

" **Arrogancia!"** they screamed in battle cry, clashing their weapons.

At first it seemed that their strength was equilibrated, but soon, the power that Hecarim's speed granted him started to crack the arrancar's weapon.

Her eyes widened at this. She looked again to the eyes of the creature and they were glowing with killing intent.

She suddenly felt very small.

By seconds, Tia's blade shattered more and more. Until the centaur decided to stop playing so with a quick weight deviation, he parried the woman's weapon upside, destroying it in the process.

He looked at the woman with an air of superiority, and delighted when she took a step back.

" **You've proven being worthy, while still not strong enough you will be useful in time"** he glowed brighter for a moment and then returned to his previous green colour **"until next time"** he turned backwards and began walking away.

"W-wait" Ichigo's voice sounded making him turn to him; he managed to stand up with his body returning to normal and his mask crumbling away "you think… you can just walk… away like that?"

" **What do you mean?"** he asked darkly.

"You show up here, start killing people, try to kill me and don't even bother in telling why" he caught a breath "do you think I'll let you go just like that?!"

" **You talk like you have the strength to stop me, but since you gave me such good a fight I think I owe you"** he turned in front of them **"my task here was confirming if a prophecy we heard about was true, the prophecy said that four powerful beings will guide a fifth one even more powerful to become a force that will have a great impact on the multiverse"**

"Multiverse?" Tia asked puzzled

" **Oh I see, let me ask you something, did you surely believe that your living world and spiritual world were all the existence?"** their shocked expressions gave him the answer **"well sorry to disappoint you but there is an infinity of more universes across the whole existence, each one as real as the previous"**

"Just what are you?" Ichigo asked with dangerous gaze. Hecarim grinned.

" **To tell the truth I'm unique in my world but…"** it was obvious that he was trying to not enjoy the situation too much, and that disturbed the teens **"…but the world I come from is full of warriors, magic and monsters beyond your imagination, the most powerful of us belong to the League of legends"**

Both of them had a hard time processing the information.

"League of legends? What is that?"

" **The most powerful creatures in my world… and I'm not even in the top 10"** both teens gasped. Hecarim turned again.

" **A piece of advice: the frontier between our worlds is weaker than ever, expect incidents like this one in the future"**

"WAIT! You didn't explain anything! You can't fight me and then walk away like that!" he bared his sword again.

"Kurosaki-san…"

" **So you can't leave a battle unfinished? I like that"** the creature extended his hand towards Ichigo while he charged at him, but before he could reach him…

" **Smite"** he made a scratching motion on the air with his hand, which glowed amber.

A thunder roared in the sky and before Ichigo could see what made it, a spear of energy pierced his shoulder, leaving a bleeding hole.

"W-wha…?" he fell to the ground. Tia instinctively went to aid him.

"Kurosaki-san? Kurosaki-san?!" she called his name but he fell unconscious in seconds.

She looked for Hecarim but he disappeared.

She lifted Ichigo bridal style, when a voice sounded in her head.

" _ **You don't belong here"**_

" _ **Just what are you seeking?"**_

" _ **Why would you choose to suffer for your enemy?"**_

She hesitated, but then shook of the voice "you don't know me" now she had to run to the only place she knew he could heal.

So she jumped in the air and ran as fast as he could towards Riruka's bar.

When she arrived she was surprised to see it glowing in weak green light.

Tia didn't want to make a scene but the wound on Ichigo's shoulder was bleeding badly so she knocked the door like a madwoman.

"Kobayashi-san its Tia! I need your help!" As soon as she said that the doors shot open revealing the old man behind them.

"Tia-san, you are ok?" he asked concerned.

"I'm not injured but he…" she signalled Ichigo, the old man looked at him and his eyes widened.

"Say no more, we have a spare room he can use" he guided her inside the building.

"Um, Kobayashi-san where are Riruka and Kaori-san?"

"Resting; protecting the citizens and containing that mist had exhausted them" he said surprising her. She remembered that the mist stopped advancing when she was escaping from it.

"I see. Then you managed to protect all the innocents?" he sighed.

"You can never protect everyone, it's impossible no matter how much it hurts. The only thing you can do is give all your power so you can be sure you save as much as you can"

Tia was silent after this; she couldn't agree more with the man.

When they arrived to the room Tia put Ichigo on the bed and the old man grabbed a piece of cloth from the nightstand.

"Tia-san could you bring me a glass of water from the bar please?" she nodded and did so. With her sonido she only had to worry about the time she spent filling the glass, so she was back in matter of seconds.

The man wet the cloth with the water and then putted it on Ichigo's wound. But he didn't stop there.

The water in the cloth started shinning green. And if her pesquisa was correct, the wound was healing.

"How?" she asked.

"You'll see Tia-san, this is a special ability me and the girls have. It's called fullbring; each user can develop it in diverse and unique abilities but the basic one and source of power of all of them remains the same" he said shocking Tia.

"How did I never heard about it?" she wondered aloud.

"Our kind had put special effort in hiding from the normal humans" the arrancar suddenly felt uneasy.

"Maybe but, I'm not exactly a normal human"

"Don't worry; no one in my house is going to judge you"

Now she felt guilty 'if he only knew' she thought and decided to change the subject.

"Mind if I ask you what is this ability about?"

"Of course not my dear, first I'll ask you: did you know that all objects in the world have a soul?"

"You mean living objects"

"Not really. All objects; being alive, inanimate or spiritual; have a soul" he amazed Tia. "The fullbring consists in pull out the power hidden on living beings, or awake it on inanimate objects…" to explain it better, he extended his hand towards the glass and this emitted a green light before it started levitating "…and use it for us"

The arrancar unusually amazed "but how did you managed to heal a wound so fast by applying it water?" she asked.

"It's the personal ability I developed. It's called 'the people's will'. You'll see, inanimate objects doesn't have only a soul but feelings too, the feelings that it's creator transmitted them" he took the glass in his hand.

"For example, the feelings that were transmitted to this glass were the desire of being able to hold liquids on it, that's its normal purpose. And there is where my power enters. I have the ability of transmitting my own feelings on it to give it a completely different purpose"

When he finished talking, the glass suddenly burst in flames making Tia gasp. Then, with a few gestures, it became a transparent liquid that flew around Tia a couple of times, and then it took the shape of a humming bird that flew to Tia's hand and when it landed, it became a glass again.

"It's an amazing ability" she said.

"I appreciate the compliment, oh! And your friend is already healed" she looked at Ichigo and indeed, the wound was already close leaving a slight scar.

"You couldn't heal the scar?"

"I could, but he may want to keep it so I'll ask him when he wakes up"

"Who would want to keep a scar?"

"You'll be surprised" he chuckled "now I have to keep an eye on Kaori and Riruka so, if you don't mind, you could do the same with your friend"

"I think that's my duty" with this the old man left the room leaving Tia alone with Ichigo "my friend" she wondered aloud and then sat on a chair.

* * *

Ichigo was slowly regaining consciousness. First passed from unconscious to just sleeping, and that was only because he was too tired to even open his eyes.

After a short nap, he reviewed the past events and realized he was stabbed on the shoulder (among other wounds) but didn't felt any pain.

He started to panic 'am I dead!?' he thought. So he put all his willpower in opening his eyes.

He prepared for the worst, so imagine his relief, and his surprise, when instead of the afterlife he saw a pair of tanned orbs barely covered by a bone structure.

"You are awake" a voice sounded from upside. He lifted his gaze and then realized two things.

She was staring at a woman's bust and Tia was the owner of that bust.

His face went as red as a strawberry. But before he could turn away she suddenly got closer.

"Your face is all red" she put a hand on his forehead effectively deepening his blush "and you have temperature, maybe I should call…" he suddenly rose

"N-no I-I'm fine y-you don't need to..." but then he remembered that rising up all of a sudden when you have just awoke wasn't the best idea. So he started to feel very dizzy.

"Calm down, you were unconscious minutes ago" and for better or worse, the arrancar catch him by the arms and led him to the bed again. Also, the size of her bust made impossible not to press it against Ichigo's chest.

"Thanks" he said as grateful as embarrassed.

"You're welcome" they fell in silence for a few minutes, but at least it wasn't awkward at all. Both of them were busy enough trying to digest the latest events with Ichigo also staring at the true form of his new 'friend'"

A white revealing outfit, with a bone mask with shark like teeth covering the lower part of her face to add a wild effect.

He would be lying if he said he didn't felt attracted to her, in more than one way.

But he couldn't think too much in that, because the battle with Hecarim kept crawling into his head. He felt like if the monster had his hand on his heart, savouring the idea that he could pop it like a balloon.

He remembered what he said before leaving 'I'm not even in the top 10','expect incidents like this on the future'

"I can't do it" he ripped Tia out of her thoughts.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"The only reason I became a shinigami was to protect people, but now this jerk appears and shows me that even as a shinigami I'm nothing compared to him. And what's more he tells me that there's a whole universe of monsters like him out there… how I'm I suppose to protect anyone from them"

"Want to protect people is a noble goal, but there will always be someone stronger than you. So the only way out is becoming stronger" Ichigo sighed.

"I know, I know. But then I won't be able to protect everyone no matter how strong I get, I thought I could until now… and look how it ended"

"You think you failed them" she said as a matter of fact.

"That thing didn't just kill them; he filled their hearts with a dread they couldn't even imagine and instead of freeing them of their pain he transformed them in slaves! Now I understand it; the eyes of those creatures, the wails they emitted; the people inside them are still alive, living a hell"

Tia had noticed it too when she used her pesquisa on the creatures. They fell in silence again and again Ichigo broke it.

"What's the point of fighting if you can't protect them all" she had to admit it now: she felt pity for the boy.

"There's no world without sacrifices" she called his attention "haven't you realised? This sea of blood covered in ashes, we refer this hell as world"

"You…"

"I understand the pain of being too weak to protect the ones you love better than you think, but one day I understood you can never be strong enough for that in this world" she kneeled next to him "and if you just sit in despair for not being able to save someone, you'll sink in an ocean of sorrows"

"What should I do?" he asked almost anxious.

"It's not about being able to save someone, but of putting all your heart in trying" she stood "the wise doesn't sit to mourn, but cheerfully puts its task of repairing the damage done" the arrancar felt that she couldn't do more in trying to help him so she began to walk out of the room when…

"William Shakespeare" Ichigo suddenly said. Tia widened her eyes and turned to him to find his sitting on the bed.

"You know his work?" she asked surprised.

"Yeah, I'm a big fan actually" he met a disbelieving gaze "oh I get it: a man shouldn't know a thing about a famous poet"

"I'm sorry if I offend you. You're right, I shouldn't judge you based on your gender" she bowed slightly.

"It's ok; I'm not offended" he rubbed his neck sheepishly "my favourite one is 'for the one that today sheds his blood with me, shall be my brother" Tia frowned.

"I don't know; I don't like the idea of wanting someone else shed his/her blood with me"

"No that's not what it means" he stood carefully and walked to her "you can't stop someone of coming to battle if that what he/she wishes, I learnt that today" she remembered what she told him when he asked her to run away.

"It's a promise, a promise that if that person decides to accompany you to battle, it won't matter who that person is, or what she/he could have done, because from that moment on, they'll be brothers" he stood a few feet from her.

"I don't know much about who you are, or even what you are. But I don't care anymore" he offered his hand. "because now, we are brothers"

Tia looked at him not knowing what to say; she only trusted a man once before and she probably will have to kill the shinigami for that. But his eyes were so sincere, so determinate, so passionate…

So there was no other choice.

"Kurosaki-san, it will be an honor to consider you my brother" she shook his hand and in that moment they both had the same thought.

'This is the second time we shook hands' after that they just look into each other eyes. Maybe for seconds, maybe for hour, they couldn't tell the difference.

Then a voice sounded behind them.

"I'm sorry to interrupt" they drop each other hands and looked at Tsubasa slightly blushed but I sense many reiatsu's outside of the building, three of them are humans"

"Just three?" Tia asked but knowing the answer.

"The other four are from shinigami, and they want to enter"


	8. Chapter 7 A shoulder to cry on

Chapter 7

A shoulder to cry on

A heavy silence fell on the occupants of the room, all of them too shocked to respond. The first one in waking up from the stupor was Ichigo.

"Well… what are we going to do? Cause… I don't think you want them to notice you" he addressed Tia.

"It's ok; I knew the risks when I first came here and I'm going to face them" she said serious.

"And just what risks you mean? What would they do to you if they saw you?" she wanted to sooth his worries but it wouldn't be like her; it would be better if she was honest.

"At best, they will just execute me quickly" she noticed Ichigo widened his eyes like dinner plates 'maybe too honest'

"No, no, they can't do that! You help me to fight that thing and probably saved the entire city!" she sighed.

"Maybe, but you are underestimating the hate shinigami hold to my kind; nothing would make them change their minds" Ichigo couldn't believe it, more like, he didn't want to believe it, since the soul society tried to execute Rukia for giving him the power to protect his family, so he was terrified to think what they would do to a hollow even if she helped him.

"I won't let them do nothing to you" he said with finality. Tia couldn't avoid feeling touched.

'How does he keep doing that? Making me feel like this?'

"Well it's not like they have to find out" Tsubasa called their attention.

"What do you mean… umm…?"

"Call me Tsubasa Ichigo-san, and as for your question is quite simple: the only reason they haven't tried heavy artillery to enter, is because they don't know any of you is inside".

"But why are they trying to enter then?" she asked.

"Probably they managed to track the source of the barrier to the building, although I can't think of anyone capable of doing that"

"I can think of someone" Ichigo mumbled, thinking of certain lazy shopkeeper.

"…anyways, what I'm trying to say is that I can hide Tia-san in my barrier so they wouldn't be able to detect her".

"But wouldn't they notice you are hiding something if they were able to track your barrier up to here?" she asked

"We'll have to count on them trusting me once I lead them to Ichigo-san"

"Eeee, sorry but I'm kind of lost here, what barrier are you talking about?" Ichigo said.

"I'll explain to you later, now this can work but you'll have to trust me" he looked at Tia and she nodded.

"Ok, what's the plan?"

* * *

 _Outside of the bar_

Seven people were looking at the building with anxiety. One of them was kneeling on the floor scanning it with a device akin to a laptop.

"How much longer, Urahara-san?" Rukia Kuchiki asked to the shopkeeper.

"Please be patient, this just isn't some kidō barrier; it's more complex than anything I've seen since Inoue-san's powers" he asked in his serious mode.

"But why are we even wasting time here?" Yoruichi Shihoin asked frustrated "we don't even know if he's here!"

"Yeah but face it, we don't but have no other clue of where he could be. He literally vanished don't you remember?" Renji said earning a glare which made him gulp.

"Ok that's enough, I'm tearing up this thing" she lunged at the barrier intending to break it but before anyone could stop her, the green light of the building dimmed until it disappeared.

"Kisuke?"

"It wasn't me" he stated as shocked as the rest, which will only get worse when the doors of the place opened.

"It has to be a trap" the redhead said.

"Yeah but is our only clue don't you remember?" Yoruichi mocked him making Renji pout and Urahara snicker "so shall we?" she walked inside the bar and everyone followed her.

Inside they were greeted by the nice decoration of the place and the lack of light of it. Then they all tensed when they heard a cane approaching and more when they sensed the powerful reiatsu of the cane owner.

They didn't know what to expect but couldn't prepare too much because the source of the reiatsu had already arrived.

"Welcome to the New old days" Tsubasa said. Needless to say that most of them were slightly disappointed "I must apologise for not give you open doors from the beginning but recent events made me very cautious, I hope you understand"

"Umm, who is this?" Renji asked.

"My name is Kobayashi Tsubasa young man, it's a pleasure" he only shocked them more.

"He can see us?" he whispered to Rukia.

"Well he does have that powerful reiatsu, but still, I don't know how a normal human could achieve it" she whispered back.

"I hope I'm not to bold saying this, but I'm far from a normal human" they yelped at being heard "now what do I owe the honor of four shinigami to visit my bar?"

'He even knows shinigami' the same thought passed through all their minds, except for one who only cared for one thing.

She stepped forward "um, Kobayashi-san" Orihime started a bit hesitantly "by chance you know where is our friend Kurosaki Ichigo?"

"Inoue" Rukia tried to nag her but she wouldn't listen.

"Please we are very worried about him" she pleaded.

"Mhmm, by Kurosaki Ichigo you mean the boy with orange hair?" all of them widened their eyes.

"That's him!"

"We founded him wounded just outside, come, I'll lead you to his room"

"Thank you!" the girl beamed with happiness.

"Wait! How do we know we can trust him?" Renji asked heatedly.

"In times like this we can't give ourselves the luxury of being distrustful" Urahara stated "Renji you Rukia and Inoue go to see Ichigo, the rest will wait here… um… Tsubasa-san would you have a spare bed our friend can use?" he asked politely. The old man looked at the group again and nodded.

"Yes, there is one just at the end of that hallway" he rammed the tip of his cane twice in the floor and then pointed at a hallway they didn't notice before.

"Thanks Tsubasa-san" he greeted him and then all moved to their destinations.

* * *

 _In Ichigo's room_

Ichigo was lying in his bed pretending to be asleep. He knew exactly who those who tried to enter were and hated to lie to them but it was just to ensure Tia would be alright.

Also, he understood if she personally disliked shinigami.

He heard the door of his room opening and played awakening 'here we go'

"Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime yelled in happiness but then slammed her hand against her mouth when she realised that he was just asleep "I'm sorry" she said quieter, red from embarrassment.

"Hey, it's ok; I didn't felt like sleeping anyway" he saw Renji and Rukia entering the room as well "and what are you doing here?"

"Is that a serious question?" Renji asked with blank face.

"Ichigo!" Rukia lunged at him to hug him "I'm so glad you are ok!" behind her Renji had to collect his jaw from the floor while Orihime felt a sting on her chest.

"I'm sorry if I worry you" she suddenly broke the hug.

"As if! The only reason I'm worried is because after all the problems I had to threw to come here, the less thing you could do would be staying alive!" a thick mark appeared on his forehead.

"Well sorry if I had a hard time staying alive after being attacked by god knows what that thing was!"

"Then maybe you should restrain yourself of fighting something you don't know anything about!"

"And what was I supposed to do!? Let it pass by?! Have you any idea of what that thing was capable of?!" a sharp pain had been building up in his scar since he first retailed, and it was getting hard to ignore.

"Then why don't you tell me what did you get into AGAIN that was so dangerous?"

That was it. Remembering what he went through make the images of Hecarim flash through his eyes as well as a piercing pain that went through his right shoulder like the spear that left the scar.

He grunted in pain startling all the occupants of the room.

"Kurosaki-kun!" she immediately moved to him

"What happened?" Rukia dropped her bickering mode for her concerned one.

"Its ok, it's already healed" he moved his hand to the bandages the old man put on him.

"Can we see it?" Renji asked and Ichigo looked at Tsubasa.

"Of course, there is actually no reason to keep it bandaged" at this, Ichigo proceeded to undo the bandages, revealing a very weird scar.

"What is this?" he asked troubled.

"It didn't looked like that when I healed it" Tsubasa said and immediately went to gather some water.

"It doesn't even look like a scar. It's like… a… mark" Rukia stated. The "scar" was similar to some kind of inexpressive mask with a flame on top of it. It seemed to be drawn in his skin with burns.

The old man returned with a piece of cloth and a glass of water. He dipped the cloth and began working his ability.

Everyone looked warily at the green light that the water emitted but before they could ask him he said:

"It's not working" he retrieved the cloth and Ichigo furrowed his eyebrows.

"Inoue"

"Ok" she moved her hands to her temples "sōten kisshun, I reject" two fairies flew towards the scar and formed a dome around it.

After a few moments the scar began fading.

"Impressive" the old man whispered.

"Well, one less thing to worry…" he stopped abruptly when he saw that below the scar a black tattoo with the same pattern appeared.

"…about. What the hell?"

"Don't worry, I'll fix it" Orihime said, but no matter how much she tried, the tattoo wouldn't disappeared "how?"

"Well..." one of the fairies, Shun'ō, flew from the dome "I really don't know what to say but, it's like there wasn't anything to fix" he said unusually abashed.

"What? But that thing shouldn't be there!" Inoue exclaimed.

"…I never explained how the sōten kisshun really works right?" he rubbed his neck sheepishly.

"What do you mean?"

"Before we restore the state of the object you focus on, we first analyze the original essence of the soul of the object, like, like… um… how do you call it? The DNA of the soul so we can have an image of how the object was in the first place"

"And what's the problem?" Ichigo asked.

"We ended analyzing the "DNA" of your soul and found nothing out of normal" everyone gasped "I don't know how, but that mark was placed there by overwriting the core itself of your soul"

Tense silence fell on the group. Everyone looked at Ichigo with worry.

"So… what now? Can I leave it there?"

"Ichigo! You can't just leave something like that pass by! It might be dangerous!" Rukia nagged him.

"A soul overwrite hmm?" the old man moved a hand to the mark and it started glowing green. The mark reflected the light for a while and then emitted a spark that shocked Tsubasa making him fall to the ground.

"Oi Tsubasa-san! Are you ok?" Ichigo helped him stand.

"I can't believe it" he said, trying to recompose "your soul has been stained with something dark; an evil even grater than the mist. I'm sorry but I'm not capable of cleaning it" lowered his head in shame.

"Then who is? There has to be someone that can take that off him!" Rukia said heatedly but he shook his head.

"Modesty aside there's no one more skilled in soul manipulation than me, so believe me when I say that the only one who might have knowledge of how to take it off is the one who placed it in the first place"

"And that's hardly an option" Ichigo muttered. The rest wanted to ask him but he spoke first "and what exactly this thing will do to me?" he asked.

"The patrons of this mark are beyond my comprehension, but I can tell you it hasn't any good purpose; when I analyzed it I could saw your inner world covered in the same black mist"

"How did you entered his inner world?" Renji asked curious.

"Yeah and what's more; who are you? How did is that you were protected from that mist?" Rukia asked more accusingly.

"Hold on there Rukia, this man has done nothing more than help us while you were…" then something clicked on Ichigo's mind "now that I think of it… what are you doing here anyway" at this the shinigami widened their eyes before sharing a grim face.

"Well…"

"I just remembered!" Inoue suddenly yelled.

"What is it?"

"Kurosaki-kun is Ishida-kun he is…" she couldn't find proper words

"What happened to him?" the rest looked unsure.

"It… would be easier to show you" they all moved to the other room.

When they arrived and opened the door, the first thing Ichigo saw was the body of Ishida lying on a bed with Chad and Yoruichi at one side and Urahara scanning him on the other.

"Ishida! What happened?!" he moved closer to him and noticed that he was unconscious, trembling and sweating.

"He saved one of first year but got hurt by one of those things" Inoue said worried.

The substitute shinigami sighed "damn fool"

"Are you sure you have right to say that Ichi-bo?" Yoruichi said with cocky smile but everyone could tell that she was angry.

"...you are right, I'm sorry" all his friends were shocked by his answer or rather the lack of irritation in it "why are you looking at me like that?" Urahara was the first in react.

"Nothing Kurosaki-san, is just you don't seem as cheery as always"

"Which is not much when you think about it" Renji mumbled loud enough for Ichigo to hear.

"Really?" he said in a low tone.

"Ok what the hell is wrong with you?!" Rukia nagged him, earning a defeated face from him.

"Rukia…"

"Are you really going to groom like that every time you get beaten? Do you have any idea how selfish that is? You get a few bruises here and there and got scared by a few ghosts and you are already giving up! You can't let whatever that was scare you and low you to this! What are you afraid?! You…"

"SHUT UP!" he suddenly yelled startling all the occupants of the room. But because he had done it but for the way he said it.

He sounded… broken.

"You have no right" he continued shocking them even more "you have no idea of what that thing did to the city, to the people" he started trembling "you have no idea what it feels like; that someone takes your worst fears and inject them on your heart. It's not something to take likely and it's definitely not something you can fix just with a scold. So refrain yourself from judge someone you don't understand!" he started breathing heavily and the stinging pain on his chest returned with full power.

He cringed and moved his hand to his chest again, everyone looking at him with wide eyes.

The pain subdued slowly as he looked the frightened stares of his friends. Then he went over of what he said and regretted it.

"Rukia… I'm sorry, I don't know what…" but she shook her head.

"It's ok; I should have been more understanding"

"But I shouldn't have talked to you like that"

"Still, you were right; I didn't know it hit you that hard" they fell in silence for a few seconds.

"Anyway, how is he?" he addressed Urahara.

"Well, as you can guess, he is physically fine but his brain activity is in constant fluctuation, like if he was having a really vivid dream but unable to wake up"

"Can you help him?" he rubbed the back of his head in conflict.

"I could try but I think it would be better if he's attended by a true professional"

"You mean…?"

"Urahara-san, she isn't in condition of treating anyone right now" Rukia stated attracting Ichigo's attention.

"What do you mean? What happened?" he asked frantically. Rukia and Renji looked uneasy.

"…We were attacked" Renji said. Ichigo was about to ask but Rukia was faster.

"It all started normally, but then something like a thunder sounded in the sky and when we looked up it was like shattering"

"It can't be…" he said. Then the redhead continued.

"From the whole sky descended something like a black mist that covered the whole seireitei. All the common souls refused to go out but many shinigami were out on duty. Some of the survivors spoke about something that killed their comrades from the shadows, and others were delirious speaking incoherencies"

"But that's not all" Rukia had a grim face which made Ichigo even more worried.

"Ganju Shiba was in the seireitei delivering a package from her sister and…" she couldn't finish, but it wasn't necessary; she said enough for him to guess what happened.

"…Damn"

"I'm sorry Ichigo" he rested his face with his hands, feeling completely powerless.

They all shared his pain; some more some less but they all felt it.

Orihime was about to try to comfort him somehow but he spoke first.

"There's no time to dwell on it" he stood "we have to help Ishida" Rukia was about to tell him to rest but instead she tried to remind him the situation.

"Ichigo she…"

"I understand" he said "but Ishida isn't the only one who needs her, am I wrong?" their silence gave them the answer he needed "then it's settled; we're going to the Soul society" he returned to his roo,m grabbed his shihakusho that was folded next to his sword and put it on.

Everyone looked at him with worry; the pain in his eyes was still visible; but he was right in the end.

"Alright, if that's what you want to do but if you don't mind, I would like to hear what exactly did you see" Urahara said. Ichigo instantly knew he might reopen some of his wounds but they deserved to know what happened, of course, excluding his arrancar friend.

"Sure" they all headed to the main room.

* * *

Ichigo sat on a couch they didn't notice before and then told them what happened.

After a few minutes that seemed to be eternal for him, he managed to end the story of what terrified the city (altered so he wouldn't compromise Tia).

They all looked at him with pity and shock equally.

Yoruichi still wanted to nag him about his habit to rush into battle but that was nothing in comparison to how sad she felt for

She sat next to him and gave him a comforting hug.

"Why do you always have to suffer the most?" she whispered to his ear. He suddenly felt too uncomfortable due to the two soft objects pressed to his arm.

"It's already in the past"

"Still, if there's anything I can do to help you fell better I'll do it, anything" she added quietly so only he could hear her, making him blush but a bit less than usual.

As I said, no one else could hear her but the fact that Ichigo blushed when she whispered to him made two mysterious integrants of the group a bit jealous.

But just a bit.

"(Ekhm) Well now that that's settled we should proceed" Rukia stated making Ichigo break the hug much to Yoruichi's dismay.

"Right then…"

"Oi! Why is everything dark here!" a clearly female voice sounded from one of the hallways that they hadn't noticed either.

'Seriously, what's wrong with this place?' Renji thought looking around.

"Oh right, some of the lights broke in the commotion Riruka-san!" the small man yelled.

"But can't you repair them?" the voice owner arrived but they couldn't see her clearly in the dark "wait, who are you with?!"

"It's Ichigo-san and his friends; he is the one who has been fighting those creatures"

"What!? He's here?! Where's the torch? I want to see him!" she began digging the back of the counter.

All the rest looked at Tsubasa with raised eyebrows "she's just a little eccentric, that's all" he replied with a small smile.

Meanwhile, Riruka had found the torch "show me your face!" she flicked the lantern and focused the light on several of the faces there, wondering who of them was the man? And then he saw Ichigo.

When they saw the other their faces froze. Ichigo had an amazed face while Riruka had a funny one.

'She's… cute' he thought. However, her thoughts were a bit less… humble

'OMG, HE'S SO HOOOOOT!' giant letters shot out of her mouth to emphasize how much she meant them, ant then she felt to her knees.

"Hey! Are you ok?" his concern sent shivers down her spine. She gathered all her strengths and was about to reply but when she lifted her gaze she met the concerned face of Ichigo and all she could do was blush madly.

"I… I… eeeh" he tried to reach for her but that was enough to snap her back to reality. She crawled rapidly, almost scared, away from him.

"S-s-so you are the one that caused so much trouble huh?" she asked not looking at him.

A vein popped in his forehead "excuse me?" he said "I'm the one who almost gave his life fighting that thing!"

"Yeah, not like it really helped much; while you were swinging that sword around, _I_ helped to shield the town from those creepy jockeys" she said with a smug smile.

"What the hell?! I almost died there!"

"So you not only didn't help at all but also almost got yourself killed? You really should value more your life"

"And why are you so concerned?! You…"

"I'M NOT CONCERNED ABOUT YOU! I DON'T KNOW YOU!" she yelled with a furious blush.

Everyone else looked at the exchange with sweat drops except for Tsubasa and Urahara who were giggling.

"…It looks like he's feeling better now" Renji stated.

"That's Riruka-san for you" Tsubasa said happily

"But why did he yelled at me and not her?" Rukia asked felling slightly jealous.

Urahara then cleared his throat calling their attention "as entertaining your discussion is we have things to do"

"Oh, right" Ichigo sai, then he and all his friends headed to the exit.

"Eh? You are leaving already?" Riruka asked slightly disappointed.

"Yes we have to… wait… why do you care?" the young shinigami asked making her blush

"I don't! Leave if you must" once again a vein popped in his head 'what's her problem?' he thought.

They all headed outside and then Renji informed the Soul society the situation with Ishida. After receiving the authorization he opened the senkaimon.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye for now, thanks for all Tsubasa-san" Ichigo said.

"I guess it is, but come to visit us again, Riruka-san won't forgive me if you don't"

"That's not true!" she yelled

"It's ok; I'd like to come again"

"Really?" she said hopefully, earning weird, venomous or grinning stares from Ichigo's companions.

"I mean um… tsk, just make sure not to take all of my time" Ichigo was about to give a sharp response but then thought better of it.

"Noted" was all he said. Then they all disappeared in the senkaimon, not before Rukia gave one last glare to Riruka.

The duo stared for a few seconds at the place where the shinigami and company used to be and then returned to the bar.

"Why did you have to tell them that?" the girl said pouting.

"It was the truth"

"It wasn't! Why would I care if don't see him again? I've know him for barely ten minutes!"

"Do I have to remind you the basics of my abilities?" he said making her blush again.

"We should just let her know that they're gone" she quickly changed the subject.

"Of course" they went inside the bar and in one of the hallways.

Tsubasa tapped one of the walls, and then a door materialized there.

"Tia-san it's me, the shinigami are gone"

The door opened revealing Tia.

She looked around her "how did I ended in this hall?" she asked making him chuckle.

"I told you; my fullbring is very versatile"

"I see. Thank you again for your help"

"Don't mention it. Now if you're free I'd like to ask you the question I mention before" Riruka sensed the privacy of the subject and left. They entered the room again and he motioned her to sit in one of the chairs, he did the same in the one on front of her.

"So what did you wanted to ask me?" she asked warily.

"I'm going to be direct" he closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them again.

"Why do you have hollow reiatsu?" he said deadly serious.

Tia knew he would ask something like that but it still surprised her.

But in the end, he helped her and she agreed on his terms. There's no way she would back down now.

"I…"

* * *

 _In the Dangai_

The group was walking through the dark hallways between the walls of thick plasma-like substance but this time they didn't have to worry for the cleaner or getting trapped between the walls.

"So how bad is it?" Ichigo broke the silence.

"There were so many casualties that we still haven't finished counting them and like I said before, we couldn't get a proper description of the enemy from the few survivors that hadn't gone mad. So it's pretty bad" then something clicked on Ichigo's head.

"Wait, what about the captains? Couldn't they do something?" Rukia shook her head.

"They said that as soon as they walked out of their divisions they couldn't get a proper direction and ended walking in endless darkness. The same happened to Renji, I, the lieutenants and most of the seated officers"

"And what did the kidō corps and the research department said?" Urahara stepped in.

"They said that they couldn't get proper readings and that they didn't saw this type of energy in their lives" Ichigo's attention turned to the mark on his chest and looked uneasy, Yoruichi frowned at this.

"Ichigo is everything ok?" she asked; he still hasn't mentioned to her his new "tattoo".

":..It's ok, I'll tell you when we returned" he reassured her with a warm smile but panicked when she smiled cockily.

"So are you keeping me in the dark huh? Maybe you want to use this information against me mmmh?" she invaded her personal space effectively making him blush.

"I-I-It's no big deal really and … oh look we are here" he quickly changed the subject and ran forward the exit, followed closely by a giggling Urahara and Yoruichi, a scowling Rukia, a flabbergasted Renji, a gloomy Orihime and finally, an impassive Chad carrying an unconscious Uryuu.

* * *

 _Soul society_

"...What...?" Ichigo asked to the air at the state of the shinigami homeland.

The place that always beamed with life was now practically dead almost barren.

There were what seemed like claw marks on every wall, floor and roof. As well as throwing knives drenched in blood here and there.

But the killer point was the cracks the extended through all the seireitei sky; there was no actual hole left but the scars remained.

'What could possibly do this?' he thought, still, that was the million dollar question.

"We saw something way similar but it still surprises me" the shopkeeper stated.

"Hm" was all Chad said but you could tell he was feeling powerless.

After recovering from the initial shock Rukia suggested to head to the 4th division and in the way they spotted a figure running towards them.

"You are here!" Kotetsu Isane said, clearly out of breath.

"Isane-san, what are you doing here?" Ichigo voiced almost everyone thoughts.

"I'm sorry, I wanted to welcome you in the senkaimon but the job in the division is literally overflowing"

"I'm not surprised but I mean why did you wanted to see us so badly?" he restated, not expecting her to sadden.

"Its captain Unohana, she hasn't returned to the division in hours, she didn't tell or left a note she just left, I've been looking everywhere but she hides too well her reiatsu. Please help me find her; we need her more than ever"

"Wait a moment, what happened to her anyway?" Renji asked

"Yeah, all we've been told is that she didn't felt right to work" Rukia said, instantly worsening the mood of the healer.

"…since all this started, she didn't managed to save a single wounded. You probably think that it's not a big deal but she hasn't lost a patient since her first day as a healer, and all those she could save, they died with pain and fear in their faces"

Some of them were shocked to hear that the number one healer of all soul society had such a losing streak but they all understand if even someone like her wanted to be alone.

But one person felt it more than anyone.

Ichigo didn't know how but after listening to the story he believed that he knew exactly how the captain felt. But not just that, because it didn't felt like if he shared her feelings.

It was more like he actually sensed her feelings.

'But how is that possible? What's different?' he thought but then he remembered his new tattoo on his right shoulder.

He knew it was a bad idea, but the curiosity suddenly was too much to bear.

'Maybe it's worth the shot'

"Kurosaki-kun? Is everything alright?" Orihime asked a bit worry when he spaced out.

"…Eh? Oh yeah, don't worry. Isane-san please take Ishida to your division, I think I know how to find Unohana-san" then he just started walking, confusing all present.

"Wowowowowo, how is that all of a sudden you know how to find Unohana-san?!" Rukia yelled.

"I'll explain later" he said accelerating a bit.

"Wait! Let me go with you!" Isane attempted to follow him.

"If she really wants to be alone then the less people the better" he yelled from the distance now running.

All were left with blank expressions.

"Ok, who else is confused?" Renji asked making everyone raise a hand.

"Well Kurosaki-san has a record of doing impossible things before so I don't think we need to worry" after this everyone headed to the 4th division barracks, but a certain purple haired beauty stared a bit to the place where Ichigo used to be.

Despite Urahara's words she couldn't shook of the feeling that something was wrong with Ichigo.

* * *

 _Sōkyoku hill_

'The feeling is stronger here' he thought and then neared the border of the hill.

He was only three steps away from the border but he still couldn't see nothing out of ordinary.

But there was. He just knew it.

So he could risk looking like a mad man that talks alone but again, if there was no one there he had nothing to lose.

"You can stop hiding, I know you are there" for a few seconds nothing happened, but then an orange barrier known as bakudō nº26: kyokkō became visible and then dissipated, revealing the captain Retsu Unohana with a tea set.

"I have to say I'm impressed Kurosaki-san; you managed to sense me even when I was suppressing my reiatsu as much as I could" she said with her warm smile but Ichigo could see it was forced.

"Well, even if you hid your reiatsu anyone should fell your depressed aura" he said with a warm smile of his own.

"Even so, you're the only one who managed to do it" her smile fell a bit "you came to take me back didn't you?"

"Maybe later, right now I thought you could use a friend" she widened her eyes.

"So you see me as your friend?" he looked at her strangely.

"Of course I do" they looked at each other for a few moments and then she motioned him to sit. He did and without saying anything she poured him some tea in another cup "thanks" he said.

"You are welcome" after this they stayed quite for a moment; just enjoying the tea and watching the horizon. After a while, Ichigo spoke.

"What a mess don't you think?" he asked, earning a sad smile from the captain.

"Indeed"

"I mean, up to this point I thought nothing could surprise me anymore but this is on another category" he said "this things show up from nowhere and start randomly attacking everyone, innocent or not. And all you can do is ask yourself why"

"I know what you mean. But I'm a captain so I can't afford to dwell on despair… everybody counted on me" the healer tighten her grip on the teacup; Ichigo didn't miss she said 'counted' in past.

Unohana turned his gaze at him and widened her eyes when he frowned.

"You may be a captain…" his voice was a bit angry "but that doesn't mean you can't ever get upset; before a captain you will always be a person no matter what others say" she was surprised at his words but then sighed.

"I think is sweet of you to try to make me feel better but you got me wrong; I admit I felt upset for a moment but I'm fine now. I just went out because I needed air that's all" she gave him a reassuring smile but he it was forced again.

He sighed knowing that he will need a different approach but couldn't think of anything.

Then it hit him.

"You probably won't believe this but I know how you're feeling" he surprised her.

"What?"

"Back in the world of living we have a clinic; an emergency clinic so it's no surprise that we get patients with critical condition once in a while" she listened to him with all her attention.

"Sometimes, when is more than we can handle, is only matter of sending them to the hospital but other times they just die in our hands" the healer could see that he was remembering bad times and was about to console him but he spoke again.

"More than once I had to sit next to them and tell them everything will be alright but then they died anyway" Unohana was shocked beyond relief; she would never have guessed this man had went through what she went.

"Do you know what I'm telling you this?" she thought for a moment.

"You want me to know that you understand me?" she guessed.

"That too but what I really meant is that we are alone right now; at this moment you don't have to be strong for anyone or me" her eyes trembled a bit at this but she shoved it away

"Kurosaki-san I told you I'm just…"

"Please, Unohana-san" he called her and looked directly into her eyes "if how I felt was any indication you are in a lot of pain right now, if you keep it inside it will only hurt you. And I don't want someone like you to suffer for like this"

Her eyes widened even more; his words and the care in them broke her last barriers.

She covered her eyes in a last attempt to shield herself before starting sobbing.

"I'm… sorry" she said

"You don't have anything to apologise for" he hugged her out of instinct. She didn't comment or protest, just accepted it and hugged back.

"I… failed… them" she cried.

"Right now that doesn't matter, just let it out"

They stayed like that for a couple of minutes. She cursed herself a few times and he just consoled her.

"Hey, look at me" he said after she calmed down and she obliged "no matter if you are a captain, a healer or whatever, you won't be able to succeed always, you will fail once in a while, the fail can be big or small and it may hurt you but you can't allow it to let you down; you're Retsu Unohana, captain of the 4th division and one of the four most powerful people in the soul society but above all that, you are a strong, caring and independent woman; there's no way something like a fail can take you down and if it does, I'll just have to keep coming here until I've beaten some sense into you" he said with a smile

His words really moved her. And he was right; just because she was good in what she does didn't mean she couldn't ever commit a mistake. And even if she did, she wouldn't let it deter her.

The captain was about to thank him when she took note of his final words.

She adopted her trademark scary smile "I appreciate your words Kurosaki-san but I don't think it would be appropriate to 'beat sense into me' don't you think?"

At the sight of the smile that made many fiend warriors piss themselves the substitute shinigami… blushed and averted his gaze?

'Now this is new' she thought "what's the problem Kurosaki-san?"

"It's nothing really" he replied still not looking at her.

"After all you've done for me to vent my feelings out is quite unfair for you to do the same to me" he sighed in defeat.

"Well I guess you're right… um… t-the thing is…" he couldn't finish

"Yes?" her smile became 'scarier'

'There's no way out of this' with all his strength he spoke.

"It's just… you have… a pretty smile" he admitted with a crimson face, making her drop her smile and widen her eyes.

"…You… really believe that?" she asked felling an incoming blush.

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Well… no one told me that before" she averted her eyes in a bashful manner.

"Really?" she nodded making him scowl "well it looks like everyone here are blind or just stupid" he said making her giggle.

"I've never seen it that way" she smiled friendly this time.

"So you're felling better now?" he asked with his own smile.

"Yes, I guess I can return to the division now" they stand and headed to the 4th squad barracks. Ichigo noticed she was walking pretty close to him but didn't said anything.

"Kurosaki-san" she called him, and he did his best to contain the blush due to the proximity.

"Yes?"

"Thank you for your words; you really are as sweet as a strawberry" if she hadn't called him like the fruit he would have blushed, but instead he groaned making her giggle.

"It was my pleasure, Unohana-san" but he wasn't gonna argue her; she was still quite intimidating.

"Just call me Retsu"

"Eeeh, are you sure that's proper? You are well known and respected in the whole soul society and if I do that then…"

"Call me Retsu, Kurosaki-san" she smiled like that again, and while it made him blush more than intimidate him it still worked.

"O-ok, Retsu-san but…" his face lit in realization "…only if you call me Ichigo, then we are even" he said seriously.

"…Very well, Ichigo-san" she said with pink cheeks; again he noticed but didn't mention it.

They kept walking, drawing many stares in the way but they paid no attention to them.

Because despite what they or others would say, they just enjoyed their company too much.

* * *

 _Somewhere… in the shadow isles_

In a massive system of caves of one of the most infamous places in all Runaterra, one woman awaited in front of a 20 feet arc like structure that seemed to be made of pure skulls.

She had quite attractive features, long legs, big breasts and an ample waist that gave her an hourglass figure as well as bloody red lips.

But there's where all the attractive ended. Cause most of her complexion seemed to be covered in a black and red exoskeleton, making it seem that she was wearing a black corset and bra with six red spikes that showed her belly as well as tight black leggings with red patterns at the sides that drove there attention at her legs and two long gloves with red fingertips. Her look was completed with four spider-like legs that grew from her back and three more that grew from her neck forming an odd neck accessory and a diadem.

She had received her fellow comrades from their missions and was currently waiting for the last one. He was a bit late but she had to take in consideration that he was the last in leaving.

After a few more minutes the skulls in the ark started shining gold, then cracks appeared in the air between the ark.

The cracks grew bigger until the space between them shattered revealing a portal behind them and the one the woman has been waiting.

"Welcome back darling. I trust your trip had been enlightening" she greeted Hecarim with a polite and a bit cocky voice.

The centaur paid no attention to her and walked past her with a thoughtful expression.

"You don't even say hi? I'm hurt" she pouted

" **I don't have any reason to report to you, Elise"** Hecarim stated coldly

"Ohhh? The little horse thinks he can hide things from me? Don't try to act naïve with me darling; I could see from a mile away that you found something interesting out there." She smirked at his glare.

"So I was right. Then how do you wish for me to find out: by you or by my own methods?" the centaur kept the glare and then sighed.

" **The prophecy was right; I found not only the White one but the Soul predator as well. Is logic to assume that the other three are real as well"** the spider queen grinned in anticipation.

"Is that so? I can't wait to meet them myself; they'll make a fine sacrifice for lord Vilemaw… once they complete their purpose of course" she attempted to leave by another corridor but Hecarim stopped her.

" **That'd be a waste"** he said not looking at her, making her frown.

"And how is that a sacrifice for Vilemaw is a waste?" she asked dangerously.

" **He is formidable"**

"If his skills are that great that would just make him a better sacrifice" she stated.

" **I didn't meant his battle skills"** he said remembering the look in Ichigo's eyes.

" **And anyway, this conversation is just hypothetical, you wont give him to anyone"** he said drawing the attention of Elise.

"And that's why?" as soon as she said that Hecarim suddenly appeared in front of her, startling her, with his eyes glowing with power.

" **He's mine"** he simply said before vanishing from sight.

He left so quickly that he missed the anticipating smirk returning to the woman.

* * *

Hecarim arrived to the huge gates to the throne room where his master awaited.

Without having to give any other signal, the doors opened and he walked inside the room.

It didn't look differently from the rest of the cave sections except for the fact that it was way larger and lacked of any furniture aside from the gothic-like throne that resided on a 15m high pedestal in the middle of it. Currently, the throne was backwards to the doors and facing the darkness that covered half of the room.

Hecarim stopped ten feet away from the pedestal and bowed.

" **I've returned master"** he said.

" **Ah, my old friend, I always look forwards for our chats. Tell me, how was your enlightenment trip?"** the… "man" in the throne said politely without changing his position. His voice gave an aura of death and fear.

" **It… exceeded my expectations; the prophecy was correct when it spoke about the power of the White one. I've never seen anything like him"** the master remained silent like expecting him to say something more.

" **And it was enlightening indeed"** the master chuckled at this.

" **So you found the boy… I assume you mark him?"**

" **I did…"** he looked at a stamp of humble design on his hand, his voice sounding uneasy.

" **You know you can share your worries with me"**

" **With all due respect master, are you sure it's wise to play with that kind of power? Not even you could use it without consequences"** he expected a reprimand of some kind, not a sigh of understanding.

" **And I do not plan on escaping the consequences; I already knew this kind of deal was a risk before, but it presented us the opportunity of accomplishing something even I thought was impossible… and just a single opportunity is worth the price"** Hecarim didn't argue, agreeing fully with his master.

" **But don't worry more; our success was sealed the moment I made this deal. And you know well that I'm not underestimating anyone when I say this"** a sickly grin appeared on Hecarim face.

" **After all…"** several green torches were lit in the cave, illuminating the dark part.

In front of the throne lied in a circle five pedestal with relics; one of them was a demonic urn filled with a black substance, the second one was an idol of an underfed mad screaming in horror, the third one used to hold the stamp that Hecarim now held, and the last two had been empty for a long time now.

"… **there's no force in the existence capable of opposing the Darkin"** Tresh the chain warden said smugly


	9. Chapter 8: Wounded pride

Chapter 8

Wounded pride

The atmosphere in the 4th squad baracks ussually is quiet and calm, like all good hospital.

But this particular day, the place semmed to made an ecception cause all the healers were currently in high stress due to the number of patients and their unique conditions.

"Bed 21 needs more sedative!"

"Help! The one on bed 46 is going into shock!"

"Three more woundeds have arrived!"

"Time of death 9:03am"

In short it was a chaos; there hasn't been a crisis like this in centuries, the absence of the captain Unohana didn't helped at all.

In a particular room layed a particular quincy. Who, due to lack of spiritual pressure, had taken the worst of this attack. Luckily, the liutenaunt Isane Kotetsu, had learnt from her captain a variation of healing kidō that serves to calm the traumas from the mind, stabilazing his condition.

Sadly, her level wasn't enough to cure him completely; she only managed to relieve the nightmare he was having temporaly, only able to guess when it will return.

But right now said quincy was in the verge of waking up; regaining his senses little by little.

Although, he didn't needed his full senses to notice he wasnt alone in the room. This because of the sole reason the presence was so unique to miss it.

The passive demeanor, the intense analitic stare, the annoying silent treat, the intriguing aura, there was no mistakes.

So after a few seconds he managed to utter the most logical question (at least in his mind).

"Why are you here?" he asked, not bothering in opening his eyes.

"I'm confused; my presence troubles you more than your current location?" Nemu Kurotsuchi asked in all honesty.

"If you want to know, the moment I aknowledged who you were it became pretty obvious where I was" he now opened his eyes to look at her.

"A fair point but that raises the question of how did you know it was me?" she asked and he snorted.

"If there's one thing I conserve about my quincy power they are my senses" he said smugly.

"...you are showing off" Ishida almost fell of his bed.

"How did you deduced that?! No, scratch that; who are you to judge me like that?!"

"I am person that asked a direct and unpersonal question politely, thus, a person that deserves an honest answer" he was about to respond but then realized that he was still too tired to argue with a fair point.

"Ok then... well... its just I'm too familiar with your... unique personality ok" Nemu raised an eyebrow.

"We only met twice"

"Well what can I say? You... made quite an impression on me." Nemu didnt know why, but she felt a new warm in her cheeks when he said that.

"So back to square 1; why are you here?" he changed the subject.

"…Mayuri-sama sent me to see if I could analyze the victims of the recent attack" she answered after a small pause.

"Now who is being dishonest" for a fraction of second Nemu looked like a busted child.

"Which part of my answer seems dishonest to you?" she tried to play inocent and would have succeded, if she wasn't facing Ishida.

"I asume what happened in the world of the living happened here as well?" she nodded "and you have some casualities of your own?" she nodded again; begrudingly this time "and you casually chose me when you didn't knew I was coming?"

Nemu adverted her gaze "well, we did get notice from lieutenant Abarai that the former ryoka were acompaning them" Ishida chuckled.

"So spill what do you want for me?"

"I never admitted my purpose here was fake" he huffed in annoyance "I just thought you may allow me to get the data since we have… history"

"I wouldn't call it history" he mumbled and then sighed "I just don't get it"

"What?"

"Why do you keep submiting to him? From my point of view you are just another disposable tool for him" he said looking directly in the eyes

"Then are you willing to submit to the tests if I told you?" she asked but already knew the answer.

"I…" he thought for a moment "I would actually" she couldn't mask her surprise.

"What?"

"You heard me"

"B-but why? I don't think you have any idea of how painful are Mayuri-sama's tests" she sounded stupefied and had another emotion that she couldn't name.

That was beacause she never felt worried before.

"Call me old fashioned, but my pride wouldn't allow me that a wo- anyone suffer that trait with at least without a good reason"

"You mean your pride as a quincy?"

"Actually…" with all the strenght he could muster, he sat up

"…I meant my pride as a human" he leveled her with with a burning gaze. The usualy cold quincy now had look in the eyes that could melt the antartic.

There wasn't a single day in her entire life that she had been looked with such eyes. They made the warm in her cheeks return tenfold.

As well as a tickling between her legs.

'I've been thinking about it for a while now; and I can't allow anyone pass through that treatment,shinigami or not. Because I… I…'

 _' **You care for her, don't you?'**_ he heard a voice in his head, that made his heart stop.

"…"

 _' **Ohhh you do care for her'**_ Ishida's breathing became more agitated per second.

"Are you ok, quincy-san?" Nemu asked but he couldn't hear her.

 _' **I wonder how would you react if something like this happeed'**_ suddenly in front of him appeared the image of Nemu impaled in the heart by the pole arm of the acursed centaur.

"No, no, not again NO!" he fell to the floor and began to comvulse violently.

"Quincy-san?!" she tried to hold him down but she was having a hard time doing it 'what's happening? I thought he lost his powers'

"Please calm down quincy-san!" she pleaded but with no avail. She kept trying with equal results until an idea hit her.

"Please! Ishida!" there was an improvement there: he stared looking for her

"N-nemu-san… p-p-please don't leave me… please"

Hearing him so broken made her heart ache; even when he knew he would loose his powers he never faltered; when he nothing about her except being his enemy he trusted her in curing his poisoning.

So to make someone like him look like this...

"Ishida... I'm here; I won't leave you" he grsaped her hands tightly actually inflicting pain but she didn't care; right now she forgot all the rest of the world; her duty, her code, even her father.

Right now, she only cared to help the man below her.

The doors of the room suddenly opened revealing the substitute shinigami and to her relief captain Unohana.

"Ishida! What happened!?" Ichigo yelled.

"I don't know we were talking and then he just..." she couldn't even describe it.

"Please leave; I'll get to work immediately" Unohana said.

"NO! D-don't let her go! I need... I need..." everyone Ichigo and Unohana turned to Nemu.

"It seems he turned me in some sort of comfort source. I... have to stay with him" she say remaining close to him.

"I understand. Ichigo-san can you please leave us?" she asked politely.

"R-right" he begrudingly got out of the room. He found the rest of his friends there.

"So, how is Ishida-san?" Orihime asked.

"I see you did managed to find captain Unohana" Rukia ovserved.

"Yeah, care to explain?" Renji asked.

"Does it really matter how I did it?" Ichigo asked seeming to be tired, but in reality he just wanted to avoid a question that he hadn't had an answer for.

"Well, you did managed to find her in a few minutes when none of us could in hours" Isane added bashfully, earning a scowl from the substitute.

"B-but you are right; finding captain Unohana and helping her to get back to work is all that matters" she added quickly.

"Thats what I' talking about, thanks Kotetsu-san" he said.

"I-its no problem" she blushed.

"See? Now don't worry for Ishida, Retsu-san has it..." he stopped when he noticed something was off.

His friends had lost all their colors... and their jaws.

After a quick look around him he noticed that everyone in the barracks was the same.

'Damn, maybe I should have kept that part' all the eyes that weren't from unconcious victims were now on him.

Right now, he prayed whoever deity watched over the shinigami for a way out of there.

And he got it in the form of a hell butterfly.

It landed on his shoulder and reprodoced the message.

' _The substitute shinigamii Kurosaki Ichigo is ordered to assist the next captain meeting to share his intel of the enemy that attacked both Soul society and the living world, the meeting will take place in half an hour'_

The substitute shinigami sighed in inmense relief "sorry guys; the old man wants me to asist to the meeting so I have to leave now. Bye!" he ran off the compound faster than he believed himself capable.

All the soul reapers he left behind were trying to think how to process what they just heard.

"...I said we act like nothing had happened" Renji said wisely.

"Agreed" everyone said that, but thre was no way they could earse _that_ from their minds that easily

No one noticed a suspicious looking shinigami watching the whole deal, taking detailed notes and then leaving.

* * *

Ichigo dashed towards the first division barracks with relieved yet worried look on his face.

He knew how bad things had been for the Soul society and even better for his own world, but to somenone like Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto ask for the help for the substitute shinigami...

Things were worse than he originaly thought.

Climbing the stairs he was recieved with the doors to the meeting room guarded by two shinigami.

"Halt! There's a captain meeting taking place and no one is allowed to get in" one of them stated. Ichigo groaned.

"Listen, I dont know why you aren't informed but anyway; I'm the substitute shinigami Kurosaki Ichigo and I was ordered to assist this meeting. Also, I had a long day and I would apreciate if you guys just let it be"

He didnt got the answer he wanted.

"YOU TAKE US FOR FOOLS!?"

"Attack!"

Ichigo really wasnt in the mood for this. So with a quick raise of reiatsu he got the two guards on their knees.

'Huh? I didnt thought I released that much' he thought. Then one of guards looked at him fearfully and asked.

"W-who are you?" a vein popped on his forhead.

"Are you kidding? It was like the first thing I told you!" luckily for the guards, the meeting room doors opened, thus, saving them from Ichigo's wrath.

"Now now, what's all this commotion about?" Kyoraku Shunsui asked with a smile.

"Captain Kyoraku! We were just dealing with this intruder" said captain looked around confused, until he spotted Ichigo.

"Yo Ichigo-kun! Nice to see you. Come in we were waiting for you" he said nonchantly making the guards loose their jaws.

"Good to see you too Kyoraku-san" he greeted him back but then scowled "you really need to teach your guards to recognize me if you want me to come to your meetings" Shunsui chuckled.

"Yeah, we should have seen that coming" he admited and then motioned him to enter, leaving the two guards who seemed to have lost their faces.

* * *

When Ichigo entered the meeting room he knew more or less the state he would find the captains.

But seeing it with his own eyes...

Soi Fon, Komamura and Toshiro were trembling, barely containing their fury.

Byakuya, Ukitake and Kyoraku were hunging their heads in shame.

Kurotsuchi however, wasnt showing many emotions; he had a blank expression with a distant look.

Kenpachi... well... he was almost pouting but it was given since he probably couldn't fight anyone.

As for the captain commander, he had a mix of the first two reactions.

"Kurosaki Ichigo" the old man called him "I thank you for coming on such short notice but why isn't captain Unohana with you? I've been told you managed to find her"

"Well she's actually doing her job right now" for a second he thought that was a valid answer.

"What? There's no time for her to do things by herself! We've been attacked by an enemy we know nothing about!" Soi Fon yelled.

"...I'm sorry, isn't that more reason for her to be healing the wounded right now?"

"There's an entire squad of healers in the Gotei 13 Kurosaki while she is a captain; she has priorities, although I don't expect you to understand" Ichigo was about to give her a sharp response but the sound of a cane hitting the floor.

"Enough! We will continue without her"

"But, captain commander, this is a serious..."

"Which is why we can't delay this meeting any longer; we'll fill in captain Unohana with the information we gather after the meeting"

Soi Fon wanted to say more but she thought better of it and remained quiet.

"Since we have a general idea of what happened in the Soul society we'll hear first the expiriences of the substitute shinigami" all ten pairs of eyes turned to him.

Ichigo suddenly felt like in an interrogation, which wasn't too far from reality actually.

"Ok, where to start..."

"Maybe from the beggining" Ukitake advised (having reached this point it almost hurted to hear that advise but it was still a good one)

Ichigo sighed "everything started normal for everyone. But then suddenly, a heavy thunder sounded across the whole city. Everyone went out to see what was the ruckus about and when we were out, the first thing we noticed was that the sky looked like cracked glass, shards falling everywhere and from the gaps came some kind of black mist and covered the city"

Everyone widened their eyes; that was exactly the same thing that happened in the Sereitei.

"The next thing that happened was that evryone who touched the mist began fleeing in horror. Then I found the soul of a woman who had it far worst; she couldn't even run, just lay there and scream. Also she seemed terribly afraid of shadows"

"So far it's the same that happened here" Komamura stated.

"As I've been told you didn't face any attackers?" everyone shook their heads "then it wasn't the same"

"You mean you encountered one of them?" Kurotsuchi's grin started to form.

"How did it look like?" Byakuya asked.

"It wasn't like anything that I've seen before he..." Ichigo knew that probably they wouldn't believe him but there was no turning back now.

"Ichigo-kun?"

"I really don't know how to describe it. It looked like... a centaur? Or rather, the armor of a centaur with a green energy beneath it"

"..."

"..."

"He was probably affected by that mist" Soi Fon deduced.

"I know is hard to believe but..."

"No, I believe you" Toshiro stated, calling everyone attention.

"You can't be serious" Soi Fon was still skeptical.

"Think about; whatever that mist was it secluded specifically the members of the Gotei 13 that could have done something against whoever attacked our forces, meaning that someone was behind the attack"

"And if we all agree that this mist was not from this world, which I'm sure we do, that means whoever orchestrated this attack wasn't from any know world, so it wouldn't be madness if they don't look like anything known"

"Captain Hitsugaya, that's impossible" Ukitake said "There are only three dimensions which any intelligent creature could exist"

"As far as we know" the mad scientist mubled angrily.

"Is there something you want to share captain Kurotsuchi?" the captain commander asked.

"I just don't get it" it was obvious he was trying his best not to explode, very rare in him "why are we dancing around the subject? Hmh? Face it already! The world is bigger than we thought! That's no reason for someone like the thirteen court squads to cower in fear!"

No one wanted to admit it, but the clown had good point.

"And just in case that's not enough well, haven't you seen the sky lately? Whatever barrier that kept us from that world was broken, from _their_ side"

Everyone widened their eyes at the implication.

"I see you get it; this... visitors indeed obviously knew of our worlds beforehand and thought that atatcking us was worth the trouble. That's more than enough reason to believe that they aren't our friends _and_ that we should start preparing for them now; planning, training and researching of course"

The rest exchanged looks and concluded that doctor freak was right yet once more.

The captain commander stroke hi beard "Kurosaki Ichigo, what else can you tell us about the enemy you faced? Like how high was their reiatsu?"

Ichigo thought for a moment "hmm, now that I think about it, in terms of reiatsu he wasn't much stronger than me"

"Hoo? Then tell us how you defeated him" kenpachi grinned.

"I... didn't" everyone gasped"

"What? But you said..."

"I said 'in terms of reiatsu'" Ichigo cut Toshiro "but the reason he defeated me was because the things that he could do"

"Such as?" the young captain pressed. Then Ichigo told them about Hecarim's powers, how he could transform souls into ghostly horsemen, how said horsemen could inject pure fear just by touching you, the way he increased his strenght the more he ran, how he healed himself by hurting you, and finally but no least, how he transformed into something even creepier that put his best attack into shame (actually that wasn't him but he wasn't going to tell them that, obviously)

"One more thing; he talked about something called the multiverse, and that there's an infinity of worlds apart ours, and something called the 'League of legends'"

"What's that?" Komamura asked.

"As I understood is some kind of organization that joins the most powerful creatures of their world and that..." he hesitated

"Speak" Yamamoto commanded.

"...That he wasn't even in the top ten" the implication of his words hit them hard, relly hard.

"That... that's just... wow" Kyoraku said.

That was almost everyone expression, except for Mayuri, who had recovered his insane grin.

"Well I guess that's everything... can I go now?" the substitute asked.

"That was more than we gathered, you are free to go Kurosaki Ichigo" he bowed and then left.

The captains remained in silence for a couple of seconds.

"Genryusai-sensei, which are our orders?" the old man sighed.

"Captain Kurotsuchi I authorize you to investigate the crack in the sky; we need all the information we can get about our enemies"

"It will be my pleasure captain commander" he replied still grinning.

"As for the rest, prepare for what could be a threat of the highest level"

"Hai!"

"That's all, dismiss" all the captains left the room.

* * *

Ichigo was currently outside the first squad barracks spacing out for once; too many things going on in his mind to focus only on one.

'Maybe I should check on Ishida' he was about to leave when a voice called him, one which he never really spoke with.

"Kurosaki-san" he looked backwards.

"Komamura-san?" he wanted to hide his surprise for politeness but couldn't "do you need me for something?"

"There is something I wish to speak with you about" he said.

"Oh then... what is it?"

"Not here, there's somewhere we have to go first"

"Err ok; lead the way" they both left the barracks, unaware that two of the oldest captais overheard them.

"Hoo? What do you think was that about, old friend?" Kyoraku asked Ukitake.

"No idea; I can't picture why Komamura-san would want to speak with Ichigo of all people"

"Do you think he'll tell us?" he asked hopefully.

"I got the feeling that you shouldnt count on that" Shunsui pouted earning a chuckle from his friend.

* * *

Sajin and Ichigo had been walking for a few minutes already, getting close to a hill.

"Ehm, I don't want to sound nosey Komamura-san but where are you taking me?" the substitute said.

"It's ok, we are here" he surprised Ichigo, who decided to take a better look around and then noticed a grave. In it, it was written.

 _A woman that dreamed with justice._

"...Komamura-san, why are we here? Who was this person?" the canine captain took a moment to answer.

"The truth is, I never really met this person" Ichigo tilted his head to the side.

"Then..."

"But this woman was a very dear friend of a very dear friend of mine"

He said nothing, waiting for him to continue.

"Tell me Kurosaki-san; do you know who Kaname Tousen is?" Ichigo thought for a moment.

"I remember Rukia once told me that he was one of the captains that allied with Aizen" Sajin nodded.

"But you don't know his reasons do you?" the young shinigami widened his eyes.

"...No" Komamura looked at the grave again.

"Before Tousen became a shinigami, he was a close friend of this woman who was a shinigami herself. She had always been a great inspiration for him, her ideal of fighting for peace to be precise"

Ichigo listened attentively.

"One day the man who she was married with killed a comrade over a petty argument, she scolded him which resulted in him killing her as well" the substitute scowled.

"That bastard"

"And if that wasn't enought, the man went unpunished. As you can guess this enraged Tousen deeply, and while he became a shinigami and took the ideal of justice of his friend, the resentment to the rest of the shinigami remained, so he sided with Aizen"

"I didn't knew... I'm sorry Komamura-san"

"It's ok" he looked at him "I won't deny that his actions were wrong, but even so, he did that because he was loyal to his vision of justice" he stared at his hand.

"Since that day I began asking myself 'what does justice really mean?', 'why did he abandon us?'" then he clenched his fist.

"But I reached the conclusion that the meaning of justice changes with each person, so I would probaly never understand my friend" Komamura looked at Ichigo once more.

"Tell me Kurosaki-san; what's your vision of justice?"

The substitute sighed.

"Honestly I never really thougt about that; even before I gained my shinigami powers all I wanted was protecting my friends and those who needed and even when I got them I only used them for the same purpose. I never considdered myself a hero"

"So you never pursuit justice? You just wanted to protect your loved ones?" Ichigo nodded and Sajin frowned a bit.

"I asume that's the same reason why you didn't told us all what happened in the world of living?" he just asked one question, one question and Ichigo paled.

"The... the old man-"

"He doesn't suspect anything, but I promised I'd never be that dense again"

"...!"

"Every moment I spent with Tousen were happy ones, even when I knew he might resent the Soul society I convinced myself that he surpassed his grudges, but in reality he was masking his anger, hiding his hate behind a mask of tranquility"

"The day he abandoned us and I watched his face while he ascended to Hueco mundo I noticed the rancor he held in his face all the time. I realized to late that I was being naive all the time, that if I really care about a person I have to pay more attention to their feelings and don't let my happiness to cloud my vision"

"And now you come to us with news of yet another dangerous enemy, and while all the captains payed attention to the most important matter now I know what I saw; that aura of frustration, it was the same one Tousen had" he began to leave.

"I don't know why you hide information from us" he turned his head to him "but if all you do you do it to protect your family and friends then I'll trust you. Farewell, Kurosaki-dono"

Ichigo was dumfounded after Komamura's speech, and even more with the new sufix.

Now he felt bad for hiding things of him, but he still couldn't tell him. And if Komamura gave him his trust he wouldn't dissapoint him.

He knew that with the things he was hiding, it would be very difficult to keep his trust AND keep Halibel safe, but that didn't stop him before and it definetly wouldn't stop him now.

'Ok, I guess I can check on Ishida now' he shunpo'ed to the 4th division barracks.

* * *

 _Desserts of Hueco mundo_

A garganta opened a few kilometers away from the infamous castle of Las noches, from where Tia Halibel emerged, carring her gigai and the medicine she looked for.

She could only think of how her conversation with Tsubasa ended.

'Humans are weird; I told him everything and he still let me go?' she looked at her hand; the same hand she used to shook his to say goodbye.

And doing so, she couldn't avoid thinking of the rest of the things he told her.

She pushed that away; it didn't matter anymore.

'I want to check on Koa but... I must report to Aizen-sama first' her sense of duty won so he sonido'ed as fast as she could to Las noches; the faster he got there, the faster she could see Koa.

She suddenly stopped when she was close enough to see what layed above the castle.

"It can't be... here too?!" she yelled at the sight of cracks in the sky.

Her sonido became even faster than before, powered by her worry of the people she left there.

'Please let them be ok' she chanted in her head.

When she arrived at the gates of the palace she was recieved by the sight of a man with short silver hair and an inhumanly big grin.

"Well, well Tia-san, I asume you enjoyed your enlightenment journey" Gin Ichimaru said.

"Ichimaru-san, what happened here?" she asked urgently.

"I guess that's the million dollar question, don't you think?" the arrancar began to get impatient "but I guess you have more important things than just listening to my theories so you can get inside. Oh, and don't worry; captain Aizen allowed you to see your fraccion before him"

"Thank you, I apreciate it" she ran inside the castle, leaving the former captain behind.

"Maybe now that she is here, captain Aizen will tell us what was all this ruckus about" he walked inside the castle as well.

* * *

Tia rushed as fast as she could to her own palace; since she was one of the espada and since Las noches was WAY big she had her own personal castle for her and her fraccion.

On the way she notice the weird damage the walls and some of the pillars suffered.

They looked like... melted, which didn't seem possible since they were made of stone.

When she arrived he she wanted nothing more than checking on her fraccion, but first she had to save the gigai and the suitcaise with the madicine to avoid questions.

But after that, she made a beeline to her fraccion wing.

"Girls?! Are you here?!"

"Halibel-sama!" three voices shouted in unison before arriving in front of her.

All of them were women; the first one was of half stature with blue hair that reached her cheeks, her eyes wre quite unique; the right one was blue and the left one was orange which was surrounded by a red line and her mask fragment was a narrow plate on her head with a horn that emerged right above the forehead. Her attire was the standard arrancar uniform, except that hers had shoulder lenght sleeves with a V-neck, with gloves and collars over her wrists. Her name was Emilou Apacci.

The second one was taller and had quite muscular built. She had drk skin, even more than her leader's, her hair was dark brown and her eyes were green. Her mask fragment worked as a three-section diadem and a necklace. Her attire differed a lot from the standard, being composed by a knee length white skirt, wrist bands as well as bands on her upper arms and a piece of armor covering her large breasts. Also her hollow hole was placed right between her breasts and her navel. Her name was Franceska Mila Rose.

The last one was the one that gave the most calm aura. She had slender built, long dark green hair, long eyelashes, lavender eyes with thre pink dots below the right one. She wears a long white dress with long sleeves that actually extend past her hands and had two slits and two belts crossed on her waist and her mask fragments formed three clip-like on the right side of her bangs. Her name was Cyan Sung sun.

"Are you alright?"

"Where have you been?"

"Did you got to see them?"

"They didn't hurt you, did they?"

"Of course they didn't! Are those jugs taking too much blood from your brain or what?"

"At least I'm showing concern you freaky eyes!"

"What did you say cow woman?!"

"You heard me horn-headed!"

"Could you please lower your chlid bickering? I'm starting to feel like in a hen house"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY SUNG SUN?!" (a/n I won't even bother of clarifing who said what here a/n) for once, Tia was glad they were healthy enough to fight like this.

"Girls calm down, I'm in perfect health. I'm more concerned about you, what happened?" they looked troubled.

"It was really weird; we..." Mila Rose started.

"Wait! I already told you that I was going to tell her!" and of course, Apacci interrupted her.

"Please, you barely know what happens in that skinny ass of yours"

"Oh, and I guess you are one to talk, with those party balloons you call tits"

"Jealous?" the lioness taunted but Apacci didn't caught the bait.

"Well I guess I would, if I had an army of calves to fed" she grinned at the numerous tick marks that appeared on her forehead.

"WHY YOUUUUU!" Mila Rose launched herself to Apacci and they began brawling all over the wing. Meanwhile Tia wathced the scene with a tired expression.

"... Sung sun?"

"Yes well, as Mila Rose was saying, we don't really know what happened exactly; everything was normal until we heard a huge thunder sounded from the sky" her expression grimaced. "When we came out to see what was happening and we saw the sky shattering"

Tia was getting even more suspicious than before.

"And from the cracks some kind of black mist came out and covered all Las noches. All the espada and their fractions were trapped in a loop; no matter how far we ran or how many reiatsu we released we didn't get anywhere"

"By the time the mist retreated almost every arrancar that wasn't espada, privarion espada or fraccion except for Szayelaporro's ones were found dead" Tia widened her eyes.

"What?"

"I didn't believe it at first either but that's how it is" the third espada sighed.

"I see. I'm sorry... to leave as soon as I got here but I need to talk to Aizen-sama" Sung sun shook her head.

"I understand. And don't worry; I believe that our noisy girls will be too busy to notice your abscence" she signaled the deer and the lioness who didn't even noticed Sung sun words.

"I'm sure they will, still, if they go too far please stop them"

"Of course, Halibel-sama" after that she left.

* * *

In the throne room of Las noches, as usual, there was the former captain of the fifth division Aizen Sosuke sitting on a chair several meters above the ground.

Anyone who knew him would expect to see his trademark superiority smirk.

But not today.

Today that smirk had fell before a troubled expression with tints of... nostalgia?

Then he heard someone call the doors "who is it?" he asked.

"It's me, Aizen-sama" he recognized the voice of his tres espada.

"Enter" the doors opened. At the sight of the woman his smile returned a bit but she could see it was forced.

"Ah Halibel-san, I trust your mission was a success"

"It was but... something happened that you must know" she knew that was enough for the smart captain to understand what she meant.

"I see..." his expression now gain a bit of frustration.

And she didn't like that.

"Aizen-sama... you know what's happening, right?" he smirked a little.

"Oh? And what makes you think I know something?" she looked to the side.

"It's just that you always seem to notice everything" he sighed.

"To be honest I don't wish to speak of the matter, so I'll clear your doubts now so you can spread the word to the rest of Las noches, if that's ok with you"

A second after that, Tia nodded. Then Aizen spoke.

"I do know in fact where the attackers came from, but the attack itself... it did took me by surprise" she widened her eyes.

"Then where did they came from?"

"I'm sorry, that's all I'm going to share" he said criptically.

Tia would be lying if she said she wasn't disappointed.

"But enough of this, I'm sure you can't wait to give your friend his medicine do you?" she looked at him surprised "then go ahead, I'm sure you went through many trouble to make him wait longer"

"I... thank you, Aizen-sama" and with that she left the room.

When she left, the empereor face became troubled again; all this situation make him remember the past, a past that he thought he had left behind forever.

And now that it seemed to have returned, he was starting to doubt if he'll achieve his objective.


	10. Chapter9 The boy in the white shihakusho

**Not much LOL action in this chapter but be sure of something; the invasion to Runaterra is around the corner.**

 **Enjoy and review!**

* * *

Chapter 9

The boy in the white shihakusho

'What a day' Ichigo sighed while walking towards the fourth division barracks. He was starting to wonder if he was a magnet of impossible things.

Because aside from the obvious things that happened in the last months and what happened in the last… ten hours? Less? He had just earned the blind thrust of one of the captains that suffered the most for the entire Aizen betrayal thing and what's more; he had been asked by THE captain Retsu Unohana to call her by her first name.

I mean please; how many people can do that?

The only thing he could think about all of that then was that a huge headache was surely coming.

And if that wasn't enough, now he had to worry about his… other occupant.

He couldn't remember anything specific about what happened then, but he did remember the feel.

The feeling of sick power running through his veins.

The feeling of being unstoppable.

He put his hand over his face.

And the feeling of having his mind overloaded by bloodlust.

He shook his head trying to shove the memory away.

'Come on; it's not like he wants hurt my family or friends. And even if he does I'll just stop him, like I'll always do'

A chuckle resounded in his head.

 **'You** **don't honestly believe that it will be that easy, do you?'**

'I don't care' he replied.

 **'Ohhh** , **acting all bad and cool here? Like when you fought captain stiff? Or that fatso and his metal freak? Or the ghostly horse? Oh! And how about that Kariya guy?'** Ichigo gasped **.**

"He has nothing to do with this!"

 **'Maybe you're right, I mean it's not like you needed me to put him out of his misery'**

'…Shut up' he remembered the dream which this day started.

 **'What? Hit a nerve? Don't puss about it; it's not like he didn't deserved it, or was only acting for all the suffering he had to endure'**

'Shut up'

 **'Face it tough guy; he was just vermin that needed to be crushed. If anything, you should be proud'**

"SHUT UP!" he bellowed, startling the nearby people…

"…Ichigo-san?" which included captain Unohana.

The healer watched him worried. Ichigo realized what had happened after a second and then adopted an abashed expression.

"Oh, umm… sorry about that, Retsu-san I was just… I mean…" he didn't want to tell her but the concern in her face made it difficult to think in a believable excuse.

Her pleading eyes were almost too much for him.

He did consider her a friend, and for that reason he wouldn't bothered her with his problems; he knew she was busy enough for worrying about him.

"I'm… sorry about that I just… remembered something" her expression didn't change.

"But what? You-"

"Retsu-san" he interrupted her "please don't worry about me; if there's anything I can't deal with alone I'll make sure to let you know" he gave the captain a reassuring smile.

For a moment, her face remained concerned but then she regained her sweet smile.

"I understand, Ichigo-san"

"Thanks" he said smiling but then he frowned "so how is he?"

"Actually, he's quite better; I managed to pull him out of the main trauma and now he just needs to rest. I think that by tomorrow morning he'll be able to leave"

"That soon? You're amazing Retsu-san" she blushed at the faintest shade of pink; she wasn't praised often aside from her lieutenant from which being praised wasn't anything new.

"Well thank you; that's sweet of you" now it was his turn to blush.

"T-think nothing of it" she didn't spent too much time with Ichigo and she already saw him blush twice, and in her opinion at least, it was a cute sight.

This gave her an idea.

'No, I can't; she could get upset with me if I steal her fun but…' she looked at the substitute still blushing with eyes closed and scratching his head sheepishly '…oh well; one time won't hurt, would it?'

"On the contrary, Ichigo-san" she said softly. Then he opened his eyes and almost gasped.

Her face was adorned with a faint blush as well as the sweetest smile he had ever seen and her eyes had a slight shimmer that made her look even cuter to Ichigo's eyes.

"I think I've already told you" she neared to him, making his blush deepen "very few people, and absolutely no man compliments me like that"

Ichigo wanted to shove it off as nothing just to save him from the situation, but she was faster.

"Or perhaps you do remember… are you complimenting me again to get on my good side?" her expression turned a bit suggestive.

"No! I… err… didn't…you…" he stuttered but Retsu still wasn't finished.

"Cause its working" after she said the red of his cheeks extended to the rest of his face and he started sweating like a pig.

'To think I'm able to do this to the man that defeated Zaraki Kenpachi' an old part of her thought 'it feels so mhmm'

Meanwhile, Ichigo was praying for her to let it go but sadly, the captain had one more line.

"You aren't trying to seduce me, are you Ichigo-san?"

That's it, it's over, _this_ is how a heart attack feels; this is how I'm going to die. Those were the things that went over the young shinigami's head before giving signs of being about to faint.

Nevertheless, before that happened, he heard something that cleared everything.

Unohana's giggles.

"(giggle) Oh that was… (giggle) your expression… (giggle) now I see what Yoruichi-san meant when she said you were fun to tease" her words made Ichigo scowl harder than before.

"I can't believe it; not only Yoruichi is making more people attack me but you? Of all people?"

"(giggle) Oh… I'm sorry but… I couldn't stop myself (giggle) please forgive me"

"You are sorry? Huh, that's new" somehow that sentence made her chuckle more.

"Oh I don't doubt that. Now come on; let's check on the young Ishida"

They both head to the barracks and saw Kurotsuchi Nemu leaving through the doors.

"Oh Nemu-san, are you leaving already?" Unohana asked with a smile.

"I am; Mayuri-sama sent me a message asking me to return immediately" she said impassively but then adopted a guilty expression "I'm sorry; I wanted to watch over Ishi… quincy-san a bit more"

"It's ok, that's why we are here so don't worry" Ichigo reassured her.

"Thank you; I appreciate it" she bowed "I'm leaving now"

"Take care" he said and just when she was about of ear reach, he realized something "wait; why would she want to watch over Ishida?"

"Well, whatever the reason is, don't let Yoruichi-san knows" the healer smiled as they walked inside the barracks.

"Even if I wouldn't want Ishida to go through that (which I do by the way) she will find out on her own so I think I'll keep my hands clean"

"Sounds like the logical thing to do" she said.

As they walked, Ichigo couldn't avoid noticing the weird stares they were receiving from everyone there; like if they were some kind of walking freak show.

"Umm, why is everyone looking at us like that?" he asked confused.

"What? No one is looking at us in any special way, right?" the captain sent her trademark scary smile at everyone else, making her cower in fear.

"…That helps but it doesn't answer my question" Ichigo sweatdropped.

"This just happens from time to time, don't give it much importance" she said.

"If you say so" he shrugged it off as they arrived at Ishida's room.

Ichigo opened the door and found Orihime and Chad next to an awoken Uryu.

"So you finally agreed to visit I see" the former Quincy said.

"Sorry about that; I was hoping you wouldn't get out of this one" Ichigo scowled and Uryu snorted.

"Please, you wouldn't last a week without me"

"Right, because we wouldn't survive without you fixing our clothes every time" a vein popped in Ishida's forehead.

"What was that Kurosaki?!" Ichigo laughed "what's so funny?"

"I'm glad you didn't die after all; things would get quite boring if you did" they both shared a small smile.

"Having said that, are we good to go Unohana-san?" Orihime asked.

"I treated the mind damage to best of my abilities but it's not like a physical wound; if you feel the minimal sign of the trauma returning, you have to tell me" Unohana told Ishida.

"Understood" he nodded in agreement as he left the bed.

"Good, in that case feel free to go"

"Thanks for your help Unohana-san" Orihime bowed.

"We appreciate it" Chad followed suit.

"Oh please, it was my pleasure" she smiled warmly.

"You still did us a favor, and if you find out anything about the guys that did a number on my city, please tell me" Ichigo said warmly.

"No problem Ichigo-san" they all left the room, Ichigo being the last. But before he could leave…

"Um… Ichigo-san" the healer called him.

"What is it?" he said.

"I've been thinking… even if you are a substitute shinigami you're still a shinigami and that means you should come here for medical examinations once in a while so…"

"Oh, don't worry about that; my dad is a doctor to remember? I'm having my own medical examinations in my human body so my spiritual one remains checked as well" he reassured her.

"That's… a good point" she sounded a bit disappointed.

"Are you ok Retsu-san?"

"Of course! I just forgot that your father was a doctor for a moment, just forget I said anything" she said with a warm smile.

"If you say so. Until next time, Retsu-san" he left the room to meet with his friends.

He didn't notice the sad look on Unohana's face.

* * *

On the outskirts of the Rukongai district, there was a house with two big stone arms acting as pillars on the entrance. On the backyard of said house there was a woman, she had light blue eyes, long black messy hair and had her right arm missing, using a prosthetic one instead. She was wearing a white skirt and a red robe that revealed a good amount of her big breasts; her name was Kukaku Shiba.

She was staring at a couple of tombstones, more specifically, the most recent one.

It said simply "Shiba Ganju".

If her whole body wasn't too strained for all the anger she felt, she would have already cried her eyes out.

A thousand questions plagued her head since it became a fact she had to make yet another tomb but mainly one

Why?

Why couldn't I wait to deliver that damn package which I already forgot what contained? Why did those things had to appear at the worst possible moment? Why am I cursed to watch my brothers die?

Just… just why?

While she was musing, she remembered the last moments of her last brother.

* * *

 _Flashback_

Kukaku ran to the 4th squad barracks as soon as she got the message, she literally tore her leg muscles running.

To say that she stormed inside would be a severe understatement.

She didn't even bother in asking where they have Ganju and just followed his fading reiatsu and surely paid no attention to the nobodies that told her she couldn't get in the room

She kicked the doors open "where is he?!" she yelled.

"S-s-Shiba Kukaku-sama?!" one of the healers said "what are you doing here? You can't see Ganju-san yet!"

"Fuck-off! If I want you to show me my brother you-" her words died in her mouth when she saw him…

…and couldn't recognize him.

For starters, his face was a mess; he had uncountable cuts on it and he even had missing pieces of flesh. His upper and lower right eyelid were gone like his left eye and upper eyelid as well as both of his lips. The rest of his body was in a similar condition with his whole left arm, leg and right hand being severed.

But he was still alive

"Ganju!" she ran to his side, now carefully of not interrupting the healers "What happened?! Who… WHO DID THIS TO YOU?!" she roared in anger.

"…Ha…" he made a faint sound.

"Please talk to me Ganju" she was starting to get desperate.

"…Ha…haha" everyone was shocked at the sound that the moribund man started to made.

Because they couldn't tell if it was a laugh... or a cry.

"Ha… I… haha… didn't… hahaha got… the… joke… ha… hahaha"

"Ganju…" Kukaku was mortified at the physical and mental state her brother was put. So shocked that she didn't notice when the shinigami dragged her out of the room. So shocked that she didn't noticed how much time she stared at the room doors. So shocked that she didn't even react when someone told her that her brother passed away.

 _End flashback_

* * *

After remembering the scene one more time, she could feel her tears finally threatening to spill.

She fought them back, not because she wanted to look tough but more because she didn't know what else she could do.

"Kukaku" she heard a familiar voice from behind her; she was so absorbed that she didn't even notice her.

Yoruichi wasted no more time and hugged her from behind "I heard it all. I… don't even know what to say except… I'm so sorry"

They stayed like that for a couple of minutes until Kukaku signaled to let go.

"This is just so unfair" the goddess of flash said looking at the tombs.

"What do you mean? Good ones always suffered the most; is common knowledge"

"Still, no one likes to suffer" Kukaku sighed.

"That's true" they stayed in silence for a few moments.

Yoruichi spoke "listen if you ever want to talk about it…"

"Nah, save it" the cat looked at her surprised "right now I only want to find the bastard who did it so I can put this behind"

"Kukaku! You can't be serious!"

"Why not? I couldn't face my brother if I spent all the time mourning for him"

"You can't say that! You are only insulting him like this you know? I know you are only trying to look strong for him but he was your brother! What good do you think you do to him if you aren't honest about your feelings?" Kukaku snorted.

"Please, no offense but I don't want a lesson of 'honest feelings' from you"

A deep silence followed that statement; both shocked by that but one more hurt than the other.

"I'm… I'm sorry I…"

"It's ok; you just said the truth. I should be sorry for judging you" Yoruichi hung her head in shame.

"Still, that was too bitching from me, even for my standards" they both laughed a bit "but you were right in the end. So let's make a deal: I'll mourn a bit more if it makes you happy but you will have to confront your secret crush, ok?" the Shiba leader smirked.

"Sounds fair, deal" Yoruichi smiled back; an agreement made between two friends.

* * *

The trip back to the human world was quiet, but no one could notice since they were too busy thinking in what happened in the last hours.

Finally, Inoue decided to break the silence.

"Um, so what did the captains said in the meeting Kurosaki-kun?"

"Well, nothing we don't know already: the invaders came from some other world we don't know at all but they also said that they probably have something big planned for bothering on attacking somewhere like the soul society. In short, we have some serious trouble here, again"

"It seems like the work never ends" Ishida said a bit depressed.

"You shouldn't let that affect you any longer Ishida" Chad said.

"Even if you say that, I can't just get over it so easily; since I was a kid, all I wanted was to protect people from hollows, and now I can't do it anymore"

"If it's easy or not it doesn't matter; you have to find the way to get over it or you won't be able to move forward. If you were half as smart you say you are, you would know that" Ichigo said, effectively pissing off Ishida.

"What was that Kurosaki?" he asked slowly.

"So where did Urahara and Yoruichi went?" the shinigami ignored him, enraging him even more.

"Yoruichi-san said she wanted to catch up with Captain Soi Fon about what happened" Chad said.

"Oi! Don't act like I wasn't here" Uryu shouted.

"And Urahara-san wanted to do the same with Mayuri-san but he kicked him out of his division, saying that he will solve this himself and that he didn't need us at all. So he must be preparing to return to his lab right now"

"Could you stop ignoring- wait what?" Ishida catch something Inoue said "what did you say?"

"I said that Urahara-san will return soon by himself"

"No but before you said that Kurotsuchi didn't want our help at all" he asked confused.

"Yeah, I did, what's the problem?"

Ishida couldn't think in anything else but what Nemu told him.

Mayuri-sama ordered me to come.

'Then why did she came?' he mused.

"Err, Ishida? Are you with us?" Ichigo pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Oh, sorry I was just… thinking" he said.

"About?"

"N-none of your business Kurosaki" the substitute grew annoyed.

"Ok listen, I don't-"

"Oh look! We're here" Inoue said before another argument began.

The senkaimon opened on the river and when everyone stepped on their town, they were shocked by how… normal it looked.

"Is this… the right place?" Orihime asked confused.

"It looks like Karakura, it feels like Karakura but I doesn't feel like a place where a ghostly freak did a number at all" Ichigo was confused as well.

The moved to the city and everyone acted completely normal, which disturbed all four of them.

"Maybe the Soul society erased everyone's memories like last time" Chad assumed.

"Even if they could do that to an entire city they had too many problems of their own to do it" Uryu said.

"Em, guys?" Inoue called them.

"What is it?"

"The cracks… are still in the sky" the boys turned their attention to the sky and it was true; the cracks from where 'Hecarim' came where still there.

"But still, no one seems to notice" Uryu said looking at everyone.

Ichigo furrowed his eyebrows.

"Ok, we can't really do anything on our own so we should wait for Urahara-san. I need to find Kon and my body, you probably should head back to school and check things there; I'll join you as soon as I can"

"Alright, take care Kurosaki-kun" Orihime waved at him.

"Hn" Chad did the same.

"Try not to get in any more trouble in the way to school" Ishida adjusted his glasses.

Ichigo grunted in annoyance but only waved them back: he didn't have the energy for another argument.

He went straight to the café where he left Kon and grew more suspicious at every passing person that acted like if nothing out of ordinary happened recently.

When he entered the place, it was exactly the same.

He spotted Kon on one of the tables, laying his head on the table with a gloomy expression on his face.

"Hey, Kon!" he called him.

"Oi! Ichigo! What happ-mpf!?" he couldn't finish because Ichigo covered his hand with his mouth.

"Idiot! Don't talk to me as I am now; talking to the air while in my body will make everyone think I'm crazy!"

Kon rolled his eyes but relented "good, now follow me" they went to the bathroom again where Ichigo re-entered his body and Kon returned to his plushy.

"So, are you going to tell me what was that all about?" Kon asked.

"And what makes you think I know the answer?"

"What?! Are you telling me the Soul society has no idea either?" the little lion doubted a bit that the soul watchers had nothing to do with this.

"That's what I'm saying. Now please tell me what happened since I left you here?" Ichigo's question made Kon face-fault.

"I still can't believe it! Everyone was scared and the ladies~ needed a comforting shoulder, so the great Kon-sama was about to give them a super-spirit-lifting speech that took me hours to prepare, but then out of nowhere the mist left through the hole and everything and everyone started acting like if nothing happened! Do you know what that means?!"

"Yes: somebody is playing with us, but at least no one will panic" Ichigo said in slight relief.

"NO! It means that I have lost the chance to meet nice ladies~ once more! Ohhh cruel world whyyyy-?!" Kon wailed dramatically but Ichigo put him in his backpack.

"So annoying" with nothing more left to do he went to school.

On the way, he stared at the cracks in the heaven from time to time asking himself the same thing:

'Why?'

Lost in his thoughts, he failed to notice a pair of glasses following his movements.

"I'm glad to see Ichi grew up as well. Mhm… should I confront him now or…? Nah I'll surprise him at school, it will be more fun that way"

"And he better be happy to see me"

* * *

 _Somewhere in Hueco mundo_

Tia ran towards the place where Koa was staying; on the way she asked herself yet once more why didn't she just took him to live with her in Las Noches but the answer remained the same:

Someone like him wouldn't last a week in somewhere like Las Noches.

She chuckled a bit at this.

'What's more; the less people that know of him the better' she thought before arriving a cave inside a rock formation on the dessert.

She looked at the place with nostalgia "even after all this time I can still call this place my home" she smiled and stepped into the cave.

"Koa! I brought your medicine!" she yelled but no one answered.

Tia sighed in annoyance, realizing the only way to get him was playing his game.

So she stood back to the cave and folded her arms.

She remained like that for a couple of seconds.

And a couple more.

And then…

"SILENT TAKEDOWN!" someone yelled and tried to tackle Tia from behind but without looking, she grabbed them by the forehead.

"S-so close" the person sniffed; their hands a few centimeters from his first victory.

"You know, the trick behind silent takedowns, is that they have to be silent" the arranncar turned towards the person and smiled at them from behind her mask.

The 'attacker' was a little boy of no more than twelve years old. He had messy brown hair, light blue eyes and was 144cm tall.

He was wearing something similar to a standard shinigami uniform, except that his was plain white.

"But if I don't yell how would you know it was me" he pouted while crossing his arms.

"That's the point; I shouldn't know" she chuckled at the boy's antics "is good to see you, Koa" he grinned.

"It's good to see you to! Onee-chan!" they hugged each other tightly.

"Now" Tia's face turned serious "how much did you progress with your studies?" Koa beamed in pride.

"Actually, I was practicing my writing when I started wondering; how would life be if sand was made of sugar?" he started digging in a chest that was on a corner "I pictured a whole new life style and was so inspired that I wrote a whole article of that" he presented her a paper-stack of four centimeters thick.

Tia rubbed her temples.

She took the first page and took a rough look at how he wrote it more than what he wrote.

"Ok, two things: first; this isn't an article this is a speech"

"They're different?" he tilted his head to the side.

"Second, I thought we agreed in that before you start writing your own things you have to learn proper grammar and orthography; first things come first" she scolded him.

"Aww, but I did it with all my heart!" he was on verge of tears.

"I'm not doubting it, I'm actually curious of how you converted such a simple idea into such a long speech but the point is that I count eighteen grammar and orthography mistakes only on the first page; if you don't work on that no one will take you seriously"

"But you do, don't you?" he rubbed the back of his head.

Tia sighed "yes I do, but not all the people will be as understandable as I. Didn't you said you wanted to visit the rest of the worlds one day?" she tried the same approach that worked so many times in the past.

"…I do" he hung his head.

"Well then, at least for now, focus in your studies; because while it's true that in Hueco mundo they aren't worth much, in those words they are crucial, and you will need them to share your mind with them" she lifted his chin with her finger "and make them love it"

He smiled "thanks onee-chan".

That smile; that small pure smile and not the hyperactive grin he uses to do, was the one that made her feel warmth in her heart.

"We'll read this later" she put the papers away "now let's make a quick review and we will begin"

"Of course-(cough)!" he started coughing loudly; actually spitting a bit of blood.

Tia panicked and rushed to the suitcase she left on the entrance of the cave and took a vial and a syringe from it. She filled the syringe with the vial contents and went back with Koa.

"I'm sorry; I should have done this first" she scolded herself mentally.

"It doesn't matter" he lifted his sleeve and she injected the medicine in his shoulder "but remember next time; first things come first" he grinned, already feeling better.

Tia smirked behind her mask "oh, aren't you a smart one?" she started tickling him.

"Hahaha! O-onee-chan… haha… s-stop I… haha can't… breathe!"

He tried to reach her to gain the upper hand somehow… and ended grabbing her breasts.

"(Moan)" and squeezing them.

"K-Koa w-w… (moan)… hat are… (moan) s-STOP!" she flicked him on the forehead and shielded her chest with her arms.

"Ow! What was that for?" he rubbed his sore forehead, and then paled when he saw his sister pissed off expression.

"I thought I told you to never do that to a lady _ever again_ " she hissed

"B-but I couldn't breathe! I needed to get out somehow and, you know, in the heat of the situation…"

" _Ever again_ " this shut him up.

"…S-sorry" he sniffed.

The woman sighed, not being able to stay mad at him for too long "what's the real reason anyways? I don't think you disobey me just for me to stop tickling you"

"You know I love spongy things, and I had to sleep with my head on the mattress for too long!" he pouted.

"But what about the pillow I got you?" Koa fidgeted.

"It's possible that I… tear it apart while sleeping" she chuckled at this.

"It's ok; I'll get you more this time. But really, don't do that again; like I told you, most people won't be as understandable as I"

"Aww, but I miss your chest! Is softer than any pillow in the world!" Tia sweatdropped.

"That doesn't matter; by absolutely no reason you can do that if you don't have the woman's permission"

"Then if you give permission to someone, would you let them touch it?" he asked.

"I… guess so" Tia answered awkwardly, feeling her cheeks reddening.

"Then what would that person have to do for you to let them touch it?" the arrancar's cheeks were getting redder more and more.

"Well… it wouldn't be just something a man-person… would have to do… we will have to become… lovers first maybe, no, definitely" Koa pouted; for what Tia taught him about relationships, she meant he would never be able to touch her chest.

"So who would you like as a lover?"

It's not like Tia planned to answer that question, but upon haring it, her mind raced to all the men she knew.

Most of them were out of immediately.

But then, she remembered an orange haired shinigami she met recently and started analyzing him more.

And more.

And just when she started visualizing the idea being in a relationship with him, there's when she mentally slapped herself.

"Let's continue with grammar" she suddenly said.

"Huh? is there a prob-"

"Now" Koa gulped.

"R-right"

* * *

 **Shorter chapter, but if I continued, I maybe would have to double it.**

 **And if you don't know already I'll tell you the situation: I'm the laziest man alive; I can't seem to get enough motivation for sitting in my chair and write 1 chapter in less than three months and that's the reason behind the long interval between chapters.**

 **So if you want to help me to get more motivation (or just want to see the next damn chapter sooner) just review, once and a million times and you can bet that would force me to write more often.**

 **Now.**

 **IMPORTANT!**

 **You probably know (or you probably don't know, I'm not sure) that the LOL world that clashes with this Bleach world is the same as my KFA League of legends story. And I decided that in that story, I'm going to give Wukong a harem; that's why many of the LOL girls being in Ichigo's harem is out of the question.**

 **BUT! I noticed that some of them won't appear in any story, or won't have too much protagonist, or i simply won't put them because i hate their guts. So I'm going to throw my actual poll out of the window, and make a new one with these girls; the** **TWO** **(because my ideas can't stand for more) girls with more votes will be included in the harem**

 **The possible girls are:**

 **.Fiora**

 **.Lux**

 **.Janna**

 **.Sona**

 **.Kalista**

 **.Kayle**

 **.Morgana**

 **.Vayne**

 **The poll will close when we end the first arc so there's like a LOT of time to vote but please, do vote; I would like nothing more than adapt the story a bit more to your likes.**

 **And I'm saying good-bye with little…**

 **(SPOILER ALERT)**

 **I've decided a while ago that two of the male Bleach characters (that aren't Ichigo) will be paired with one LOL girl each, but I won't tell you which XD.**

 **That's it! Until next time! (hopefully, that will be in no more than 1 year)**


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